Whether you need a degree to back up a decade of experience or your background is in business and a new career interests you, you can advance in supply chain management with UNCG’s online programs.
What is supply chain management?
The Bachelor of Science in Supply Chain Management is an online degree-completion program that prepares students for a career in the sourcing, production, and distribution of goods and services worldwide.
If you have a bachelor’s degree in any discipline—engineering, marketing, economics—you can earn a Post-Baccalaureate Certificate in Supply Chain, Logistics, and Transportation Management.
What skills will I develop?
The BS in Supply Chain Management teaches you how to plan and organize for day-to-day operations, from how much material you’ll need each day to who needs to deliver them and when.
“Your job is to plan what you need for the foreseeable future and maybe six months from now,” says Dr. Larry Taube, associate professor and undergraduate programs director of the Bryan School of Business and Economics.
Supply chain management is about managing all the raw materials that go into production, transferring those materials into finished goods, and delivering them to customers on time, he says.
How can I get real-world experience in a virtual classroom?
The BS degree may be an online program, but students have opportunities to experience different aspects of the field.
Students can expect:
● to look at transportation companies, third-party logistics providers, and warehousing through face-to-face or virtual tours
● to learn about different roles in project management through a virtual tour and analyzing how a company plans, schedules, and manages quality
● a capstone project that includes a team solution to a case study
● to focus on management-level skills
Why do I need this degree if I have supply chain management experience?
The program was created because workers in the industry didn’t have the correct (or any) educational background, Taube says.
Workers get promoted because of good leadership skills, but Taube says eventually their careers can stall without a bachelor’s degree to advance.
“They do it because they’re hard workers. They do it because they were experts in a certain area,” Taube says. “All they know about supply chain is what they learned at the company and the company wants them to know more about this planning, organizing, scheduling, and controlling process, but they’ve had no academic exposure to all that. It’s all been the world of hard knocks. You need to have a little bit of both.”
What if I’m new to the field?
For those with a degree, the Post-Baccalaureate Certificate in Supply Chain, Logistics, and Transportation Management provides skills needed in the field.
“This certificate will aid them in transitioning to a job in supply chain management,” says Dr. Vidyaranya Gargeya, professor and former head of the Department of Information Systems and Supply Chain Management.
● The two-semester program teaches theory of management and business and enhances the abilities of what students are doing.
● Students can earn professional credentials through the APICS certified exams in CPIM or CSCP, or the ISM certification exam in CPSM.
● Students who are not ready for an MBA can use the certificate courses as electives in the UNCG Bryan School MBA program. Once a student applies and is admitted to the MBA program, nine credits can transfer into the program.
● Student assignments include case study analysis and problem solving.
● Get experience with real businesses, either through internships or executive mentorships.
Students do real projects with organizations and in some cases can shadow a mentor, Gargeya says. Mentorship is designed for professionals who may have experience outside of supply chain management.
“With this mentorship, they are quickly able to gain managerial experience in supply chain management,” Gargeya says. Through shadowing, they learn more about what the job is to quickly make a transition into a supply chain management job.
Are you ready to make a transition?
Learn more about the Supply Chain Management programs. Download a brochure for the BS in Supply Chain Management or the graduate certificate.
