In my view, you're never finished studying. A career takes off when someone embarks on a secondary education and even though you would normally enter a full time job at some point, this does not change the necessity of continuously updating your knowledge and upgrading your ability levels. As a result, I currently attend an academic study to qualify for a degree in controlling.
I started off in a practice-based study and worked my way up as time passed by. This is advantageous to an employer as it is often difficult to put yourself in a position requiring a different level of education. A person with an academic background does have other conceptions on a topic than someone with an intermediate educational background. Understanding both points of view is essential to creating an efficient and effective environment.
An intermediate business studies supplemented with a higher business study means practical knowledge is well covered. Both studies are mainly internationally and commercially oriented. After obtaining my higher business degree, I choose to complement my knowledge with an academic degree. At the Radboud University, I entered a programme to obtain a degree in international management. This study has a focus on multinationals and their internal operations. As a result, topics like business process management, sociotechnology and financial planning are well covered. I nearly completed this degree, but paying for this study proved increasingly difficult.
During most of my educational career, working used to be a means of paying my way through college, but by the end of 2006 this was proving to be increasingly difficult. As a result of this and a change in structure of the study programme, I decided to apply for a full time job and change over my academic study from a day programme to an evening programme. This meant changing universities from the Radboud University to the Open University. At the Open University I started a study with the aim of achieving an academic degree in controlling. I hope to finish the subjects by the end of June in order to start working on my final thesis in September.
| 2007 - | Open University Heerlen, Business Science - specialisation Controlling |
| 2001 - 2007 | Radboud University Nijmegen, Business Science - specialisation International Management |
| 1997 - 2001 | Advanced education for business administration and economics [HEAO], specialisation International Marketing |
| 1997 | Fenedex Export certificates (www.fenedex.nl) |
| 1994 - 1997 | Intermediate business education [MEAO] - Specialisation International trade and Wholesale |
| 1990 - 1994 | Intermediate general secundary education [dutch: MAVO] |