POSTED: Thursday, September 28, 2017 09:59 AM

Kent State Partners With Ohio Small Business Development Center to Deliver Certified Business Advisor® Program

’s College of Business Administration has partnered with the Ohio Development Services Agency on behalf of the Ohio Small Business Development Center to deliver the Certified Business Advisor® (CBA) online certification program beginning fall 2017.

The program, offered fully online, certifies business professionals through focused instruction at the graduate level in accounting/finance, marketing and human resource management.

The Certified Business Advisor program was developed for business professionals who counsel and inform existing and aspiring entrepreneurs. According to the Ohio Small Business Development Center, the Certified Business Advisor program “provides assurance to clients that its graduates have the business skills, competency and knowledge to effectively counsel, guide and inform small business owners and entrepreneurs.”

“For more than two decades, the Ohio Small Business Development Centers have used the Certified Business Advisor program to educate hundreds of small business advisors across the country,” said Jim Laipply, state director of the Small Business Development Centers at the Ohio Development Services Agency. “We are proud to partner with to help even more business counselors and economic development professionals grow and develop small businesses.”

Upon successful completion of coursework and exams, attendees will receive a certificate of completion from Kent State’s College of Business Administration. The College of Business Administration is accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) and is among fewer than 1 percent of business schools worldwide to receive dual accreditation in both business and accounting.

“The CBA allows our graduate faculty to share their expertise with professionals throughout the nation who provide advice to small businesses,” said Deborah F. Spake, Ph.D., dean of Kent State’s College of Business Administration.

The Certified Business Advisor program offers a concise, yet comprehensive up-to-date curriculum. The faculty emphasize application as well as theory in this certificate program.

Registration for the program is now open. For more information and to apply for the College of Business Advisor certificate at Kent State, visit www.kent.edu/business/cba.

About ’s College of Business Administration

’s College of Business Administration is among the fewer than 1 percent of business schools worldwide to obtain dual Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) accreditation in both business and accounting. The college enrolls more than 4,000 students and boasts 10 undergraduate majors, 13 minors and a Professional Sales Certificate program; master’s degrees in accounting, business administration (Master of Business Administration and Executive Master of Business Administration), business analytics and economics; as well as a Ph.D. program with concentrations in accounting, finance, information systems, management and marketing. 

Kent State’s College of Business Administration ranked among the top 100 public business undergraduate programs in the U.S. in the recent 2018 U.S. News & World Report ranking and 45th among the top undergraduate business schools in the U.S. in 2016 by Bloomberg Businessweek based on an employer survey of how well schools prepared students for jobs. In addition, the college is ranked as one of the nation’s Best Business Schools by Princeton Review and Tier One for both Master of Business Administration and Executive Master of Business Administration programs in North America by CEO Magazine. The college is committed to sustainability as a Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) advanced signatory and is recognized by the Sales Education Foundation as a top university for professional sales education.

For more information about Kent State’s College of Business Administration, visit www.kent.edu/business.

                                                                                                                                             ###

Media Contacts: Joni Bowen, jbowen1@kent.edu, 330-672-1279 Emily Vincent, evincen2@kent.edu, 330-672-8595