Centennial College - Why Choose Online Business Courses? Here’s Three Reasons

From going down a rabbit hole on Amazon and ending up with 10 items in your cart, to using apps to order food, online businesses in Canada are increasingly becoming popular. At the same time, businesses are also conducting their affairs digitally (Zoom meetings, anyone?). This popularity extends right across the globe, with Forbes reporting that 71 per cent of businesses now have a website. This growing digital presence can be attributed, in part, to the COVID-19 pandemic. With in-person stores shut down and more people working remotely, e-commerce picked up pace. Now, the trend of doing business online is here to stay. By 2040, an estimated 95 per cent of all purchases will be facilitated by e-commerce.

It's an outlook that makes why question, "Why choose online business courses?" easy to answer. Here are some reasons why a digital environment is the ideal place to learn about the world of commerce.

1. The best online business courses Canada are accessible and flexible

On your couch, from a hotel balcony overlooking the ocean, in a ski lodge in front of the crackling fireplace, at the local coffee shop, anywhere that has Wi-Fi becomes your classroom when you’re in a digital learning environment. The accessibility of online education is one of its biggest benefits. At Centennial College, for example, the digital version of the Business program is open to both domestic and international learners, and available in three intakes. You can log in from anywhere, at any time to complete your assignments. You can build a community with your peers through discussion boards and tools like video conferencing platforms. You can also gain the type of hands-on experience that is relevant as business progressively requires computer literacy. And, because the program mirrors the content of its in-person counterpart, just in a digital format, it covers the most up-to-date topics. Among them are business software, human resources management, management principles, digital marketing and professional selling.

2. You gain digital skills for the future of work as one of the benefits of doing business online

You log into your Zoom meeting, and automatically know to turn on your camera and put your microphone on mute as the meeting begins. This is etiquette that people across all sectors are now familiar with. It’s also part of a unique skillset that falls under digital literacy skills. Today, and into the future, tech competencies are non-negotiable. Jobs are becoming increasingly automated, and tasks are being completed online. Some meetings really can be emails, so you have to know how to send them — across platforms and devices — with attachments. By their very nature, how online courses work coincides with developing and/or advancing your computer literacy. You gain an entire skill that includes tools such as real-time collaborative software (Google Docs, anyone?), live workplace chat apps (gotta love Slack), and sophisticated asynchronous work gadgets (digital whiteboards).

3. It’s effective preparation to help the growing amount of online businesses in Canada

The increasing popularity of e-commerce is an obvious answer to the “Why choose online business courses?” question. Think about the stats highlighted earlier, and then consider this: In 2022, online retail sales in Canada totalled nearly $110 billion. By 2026, e-commerce retail sales in the country are projected to be more than $157 billion. Those sales were made by 27 million digital buyers, who are projected to surpass 30 million by mid-decade. Learning business online opens the window for you to better understand the e-commerce consumer, digital business trends and tools of the trade, and how to successfully navigate a career in the rapidly-evolving world of business.

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By: Izabela Shubair