If leadership is something you’ve practised throughout your career, you may feel that there’s no point in completing an organisational leadership degree. However, a postgraduate degree will give you industry credibility and now, through Deakin’s Professional Practice degrees, your skills and experience can be recognised to fast-track your study.
Deakin University’s Master of Leadership is the qualification that recognises your leadership experience and capabilities. Your wealth of skills, experience and potential will be measured, acknowledged and accredited.
As the only Australian university to incorporate credentials into a master’s degree, Deakin will have you graduating in less time and at less cost compared to more traditional degrees.
Developing your studies on your existing work experience also offers some additional benefits.
Build a portfolio of your existing leadership skills
An organisational leadership degree provides proof of your leadership skills and potential for employers. Deakin’s Master of Leadership gives you the opportunity to showcase your leadership skills in your workplace before you even graduate.
You’ll complete four core units, two Professional Practice credentials and four microcredentials, or four core units, four Professional Practice credentials and two microcredentials. The credentialing process allows you to reflect on previous and current leadership challenges.
As part of this reflection process, you’ll gather evidence of a leadership scenario you’ve encountered at work. Using documents, images, interviews and other examples of evidence, you’ll then write a testimony that shows how these items demonstrate your leadership. Your testimony will then be assessed against the criteria of the credential at a master’s level.
Once completed, these Professional Practice credentials will create a portfolio of your existing leadership skills.
In addition to recognising your existing leadership abilities, the credentialling process gives you a platform to discuss those skills in your workplace. You can bring your employers and colleagues into your evidence gathering process to demonstrate your leadership skills.
Apply theory to your lived experience
When you undertake the master's degree of leadership at Deakin, all the theoretical aspects of the course are based on your own leadership practice.
You know you’ve got leadership skills, but how does your leadership style align with the path-goal theory, situational leadership or cognitive resources theory?
Developing a personal leadership vision statement will answer all these questions. You’ll reflect on your own style to identify similarities with leading leadership theories to highlight your own strengths and weaknesses. The resulting statement will form part of your leadership portfolio and be a guide to improving your leadership and keeping it on track.
Showcase your leadership skills in your workplace
You can bring your workplace right into your master’s when you build a leadership and followers map.
Followers carry out the effective work of teams and are essential for successful leadership. Understanding their needs and what motivates your team is key to leading with influence and achieving organisational goals. This also helps you solve many leadership problems and showcases your skills as a leader.
So, not only will you gain a master’s qualification without developing the technical skills a leader already knows, but you’ll be highlighting the fact that you already know them. The Master of Leadership at Deakin enables you to reveal those skills and solve leadership problems in your workplace.
An emphasis on experience, not exams
The focus on reflection and recognition of existing leadership skills is what really makes this organisational leadership degree different. There are no exams.
Deakin is the only Australian university to incorporate credentials into a master’s degree, eliminating the need for exams and formally recognising your accomplished abilities.
This significantly reduces the cost and time required to complete your master’s, giving you a fast return on investment.
That formal recognition of your skills also improves your potential for promotion through your portfolio of work and Professional Practice credentials badges, which can be added to your LinkedIn profile.
Earn your postgraduate degree while you work
Deakin’s Master of Leadership is a flexible online program that fits around your busy schedule.
In addition to recognising your existing leadership skills and capitalising on your experience, this postgraduate degree puts the focus of your studies on your workplace.
One of the four coursework units is a capstone research project, which enables you to reflect on the leadership of your workplace.
You’ll have a platform to discuss leadership with your colleagues, both senior and junior. If you’re not currently in a leadership position, you’ll be able to complete this research from a bottom-up perspective. Either way, the capstone research project starts a leadership conversation with your workplace that will showcase your leadership abilities.
Learn more about our Master of Leadership online degree or by calling our enrolment team on 1300 043 524.