At LSE, we’re committed to lifelong learning and helping professionals advance in their careers. We’ve recently launched The LSE Certificate of Professional Advancement, a certificate which will be awarded to participants who complete any three courses from our online certificate course portfolio over a two-year period. This offers participants maximum flexibility to go deeper with their learning from anywhere in the world, and choose courses tailored to their professional development needs in a way that suits their own schedule.
We sat down with Rajiv Kumar, Commercial Director at Hanson Wade and recipient of The LSE Certificate of Professional Advancement, at our on-campus networking event to find out more about his online learning experience.
Which courses did you take?
“I studied Data Analysis for Management, MBA Essentials, Competitive Strategy and Innovation, and Marketing Analytics for Consumer Insights."
Why did you decide to take multiple courses with LSE?
“The reason I took multiple courses with LSE is because I had such a positive experience the first time around. Great content, great pace, great support and ultimately, after the first course I noticed a significant impact on my day-to-day work, so it felt natural to continue being a student and continuing to adopt new ideas that would have a positive impact on my role and my work.”
What skills did you gain from taking these courses?
“Each course gave me something very specific. One of the fundamental things I implemented was my analytical thinking, I now have a toolbox of frameworks and ideas and suggestions to identify a challenge and then come up with a solution.”
How do you use these skills in your job role, and have they helped you in your career advancement?
“I picked up a number of skills that I use all the time, ultimately, I work with data so being able to transform data into actionable insights is key. In my role I’m now better equipped to help clients achieve their commercial objectives, which in turn helps us as a business achieve our commercial objectives. One of the positive impacts of taking these courses is that my role has shifted from being a sales director to being a commercial director, so I now have wider responsibility and wider reach on how the company grows.”
How did you organise your time around work and study?
“Managing my time wasn’t as much of a challenge as I initially thought, I have clients across the globe so Monday to Friday I’m booked out, but I was able to just focus on the weekends and get the courses completed within a focussed time period.”
Who would you recommend these courses to and why?
“I always say that everyday should be a school day, so I would recommend these courses to anyone that either wants to be refreshed with a subject matter or is new to a subject matter or even wants to consolidate their learning about a subject matter.”
What does receiving The LSE Certificate of Professional Advancement mean to you?
“Success is a journey, so while receiving the certificate was fantastic, I think one of the biggest things was the opportunity to learn new things; to start the week not knowing what was going to happen and by the end of the week, feeling like a bit of an expert on the subject.”
What have you enjoyed most about the networking event today?
“I think the networking event has been brilliant, it’s a great opportunity to talk to people who’ve been on the courses I’m interested in and get feedback from them.”
Can you summarise your online learning experience with LSE in one word?
"Growth."
To find out more about The LSE Certificate of Professional Advancement, visit The Certificate of Professional Advancement | LSE Online.