As an admission requirement for a Higher Business Diploma (HWD) with a VSK certificate, prospective students must have completed basic commercial vocational training, i.e. an apprenticeship. Or a degree from a commercial school at commercial diploma level. Persons with other basic vocational training and several years of commercial work experience are also admitted.

All schools that offer the Advanced Business Diploma HWD / VSK are guided by the specifications and regulations of the Association of Swiss Management Schools (VSK), which clearly define the content. The 2018 regulations specify 7 modules that are examined and to which the individual schools align their course content. These modules are

• Business administration (incl. economics and law)
• Accounting
• Personnel management (incl. law)
• Process management
• Project management
• Marketing
• Communication, sales and negotiation techniques, rhetoric

Some schools also offer other modules, such as leadership, accounting or German law, but these are optional subjects that are not included in the degree.

The training course leading to the Higher Business Diploma HWD/VSK qualifies you as a Certified Business Specialist VSK (Association of Swiss Management Schools).

If you have successfully completed all seven modules, you are entitled to use this title.

A Higher Business Diploma HWD offers graduates:

• Generalist training - practice-oriented and wide-ranging
• get a grip on business management instruments
• Acquire competent basic commercial knowledge
• become a communicative and management-oriented business specialist
• Gain organizational flair and project talent
• sought-after employee in the Swiss economy
• Gain initial specialization in a specialist area or function
• work independently on specialized tasks as an expert
• Create optimal conditions for management training to become a professional or expert

The following skills can be acquired through a Higher Business Diploma course with a VSK certificate:

• understand, analyze and interpret business contexts and derive corresponding action requirements and options for their management level
• Ability to obtain and evaluate information on current economic and economic policy issues and to make decisions based on this information
• provide meaningful figures and financial data for individual projects/products or areas for the team or group they manage
• understand, analyze and interpret the figures and derive corresponding needs and options for action from them
• successfully apply modern systems and instruments of personnel management in their daily management work in the team/group by incorporating the company's existing guidelines and resources or (co-)designing them themselves
• design processes and changes within their management area in line with tasks, individuals, teams/groups, resources and the company
• Ability to include or plan the most important marketing instruments in the sales program
• Ability to lead meetings and discussions/negotiations competently and master the targeted use of communication tools