Graduate Diploma in Innovation and Entrepreneurship

at Ara Institute of Canterbury - City Campus New Zealand

Our one year program, which has been designed in collaboration with New Zealand employers, provides you with specific knowledge, practical skills and relevant analytical techniques for work as a laboratory technician. These skills include critical thinking, problem solving and the ability to interpret results.

You'll also gain an understanding of laboratory quality management practice and reporting skills suitable for international quality standards, and have the skills to work independently and within groups. Personal skills such as punctuality, team work and time management will be developed.

You'll have the opportunity to enrich and broaden your knowledge with electives in areas such as microbiology, analytical and environmental chemistry, food microbiology and molecular biology. The program also includes a research project and work placement element to ensure you're work-ready when you graduate.

In this vibrant and exciting industry, this specialisation will prepare you in all aspects of event logistics, planning and management. Whether you have career ambitions to run international conferences, sports tournaments or music or arts festivals, our experience tutors will help you develop real-life, hands-on skills. You’ll also get to work on an actual local event to consolidate your learnings.

Flexibility has been built into this degree, allowing you to not only to study part-time, full-time and/or in the evenings, but to choose two specialisations at no extra cost and requiring no additional time.

This diploma is designed to enable you to scope, manage and lead projects. It covers business basics including accounting, sales and marketing, human resources and risk management, then focuses on project management.

You'll gain an understanding of project management principles and methods, and what project management tools are available. You'll also learn how to select, apply and support a broad range of current and emerging business technologies to meet a business's needs and how to apply this project management knowledge to real-life scenarios.

Accounting is much more than bookkeeping. If you wish to move into accounting without becoming a Chartered Accountant, this pathway enables you to specialise in financial accounting, management accounting or taxation, and incorporate five electives from a different discipline to widen your career options. This could include project management, change management or something completely different; the scope and variety is up to you.

Flexibility has been built into this degree, allowing you to not only to study part-time, full-time and/or in the evenings, but to choose two specialisations at no extra cost and requiring no additional time. Alternatively, you can personalise your degree by including up to five elective courses (Level 5 and above, equal to 15 credits each) from any subject area of your choosing.

This comprehensive, hands-on programme covers project management, operations management and e-commerce in relation to supply chain logistics. You'll learn from industry experts how to identify important phases of supply chain and logistical management from internal and external perspectives; evaluate and critique existing operations; identify supply chain and logistical issues; and create effective and sustainable management solutions.

You'll also gain a practical understanding of e-commerce and its role in business; develop concepts and analytical methods for managing people and resources; explore the basic principles and terminology of project management; and appraise project plans using MSProject.

You will gain a solid grounding in engineering theory and principles of engineering science including design and drawing, materials, surveying hydraulics, geotech structures and highways. It is expected that graduates will attain the educational underpinnings and work ready attributes defined in the Engineering New Zealand Graduate Profile for Engineering Technicians.

The graduate profile defined by Engineering New Zealand is benchmarked internationally to the exemplar graduate attributes for graduates of technical education programmes recognised under the Dublin Accord.

This program has been designed to equip you with the skills and knowledge the industry requires to meet the increasing demand for outdoor leaders and guides and to prepare you for a varied, rewarding and adventurous career.

Learning from some of the most qualified educators and instructors in the country you'll become technically competent in a range of outdoor pursuits including sea kayaking, rock climbing, bushwalking and mountain biking. You'll gain skills in leadership, sustainability and environmental education, supervision, and instruction. You'll also learn how to plan, prepare, instruct and guide participants in a range of outdoor activities while maintaining safe, ethical and professional practice in familiar and unfamiliar outdoor environments. This will include assessing and managing emergency care situations in isolated locations.

You'll learn about leadership principles, how to build and maintain positive staff relationships, and how to monitor and maintain operating procedures and compliance requirements. Key areas covered include the importance of excellent customer service and how to work in collaborative, team-based environments within the restaurant, bar, barista, hotel reception and accommodation contexts. In addition, you'll gain a sound understanding of local and international tourism and the essential contribution tourists make to the hospitality industry. You'll undertake a practical work placement which will give you the opportunity to set personal and professional development goals.

This programme has been designed to ensure that when you graduate you'll have the knowledge and skills needed for this dynamic industry, and that you can be a flexible, future-focused, creative leader who can adapt to changing circumstances. Your studies will cover: hospitality and tourism trends; marketing strategies for local and international hospitality and tourism contexts; financial management strategies; business analysis for hospitality and tourism; communication; self-management; problem solving; teamwork and planning. In addition, you'll explore New Zealand's heritage and indigenous culture, and gain an understanding of sustainability issues relating to tourism, such as its impact on the environment.

Bachelor of Music covers all the skills and knowledge you need to be a multi-faceted professional musician. It’s built around collaboration - you’ll learn the foundational skills and apply them in group projects and classes that directly mirror the real world of the music industry. The programme focuses on the practical; even the ‘academic’ subjects are taught in a style that relates directly to the practical application of those subjects. More than half the programme content is practical in nature, a higher proportion than most music degrees in New Zealand. With such a focus on the practical, you’re a musician from day one at Ara.

The degree offers three pathways: Music Creation, Music Performance and Music Production. This choice lets you specialise in the area you’re passionate about, while learning alongside and working with musicians from other pathways. Your third-year capstone project allows you to design your own major project with dedicated specialist tutor support.