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If you are undertaking the Graduate Diploma of Applied Finance or Master of Applied Finance you have the option to specialise in a specific area of professional work. This allows you to customise your qualification to align with your specific career ambitions. This process involves making sure that the elective courses you select are related to the specific professional field you are interested in.
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Specialising within the Master of Applied Finance or Graduate Diploma of Applied Finance allows you to deepen your technical capability, enhance your professional profile and align your studies with your career objectives. Kaplan Professional offers four distinct specialisations; Project Management, Business Intelligence, Investment Analysis and Corporate Finance. Each is designed to reflect areas of high demand in the financial services sector.
To be awarded a specialisation, you must complete the designated three elective subjects for your chosen discipline as part of your postgraduate qualification. This achievement is formally recognised on both your academic transcript and testamur.
For those not pursuing a full Applied Finance qualification, Kaplan Professional also offers verified digital badges in the Project Management and Business Intelligence disciplines, which can be earned upon completion of the relevant subject sets and used to demonstrate your capability publicly.
Business intelligence focuses on underpinning data analytic concepts and techniques to harness the power of data to apply data-driven decisions and solve problems creatively. The subjects offered in this specialisation enables students to gain knowledge, skills, and techniques to solve problems creatively by integrating design thinking with analytics capability. Students will also learn to investigate how insights from quantitative and qualitative data analysis, and meaningful data visualisation can inform better decision-making.
This specialisation may be relevant to any professionals in the finance industry looking to develop skills to understand data for better decision-making driving improvements and work with multidisciplinary teams.
This specialisation may be relevant to the following roles:
Download our specialisation table to find out which subjects you need to complete for each specialisation.
Specialisation table effective from Study Period 4 2025
Specialisation table effective up to Study Period 3 2025
Earn this digital badge by successfully completing the three Business Intelligence subjects. Whether you’re working towards a postgraduate qualification or completing them as a standalone discipline, this badge offers professional recognition of your business intelligence capabilities.
Please note: You will not be formally recognised as a Business Intelligence, Applied Finance specialist unless you complete either the Graduate Diploma or Master of Applied Finance.
Find out more about digital badges here.
Project management explores how projects align with a company’s strategic goals and how to manage the cyclical stages of a project from idea generation until project completion achieving all project goals within the given constraints. The subjects offered in this specialisation enable students to learn about what tools are needed at different stages in a project’s lifecycle and develop skills to assess the viability of the project, identify and plan for potential risks and organise adequate financing. Students will also learn how to tackle problems related to task allocations and managing resources to ensure projects are delivered on time and within budget.
This specialisation may be relevant to any professionals in the finance industry looking to develop project management skills. Some roles include but are not limited to:
Earn this digital badge by successfully completing the three Project Management subjects. Whether you’re working towards a postgraduate qualification or completing them as a standalone discipline, this badge offers professional recognition of your project management capabilities.
Please note: You will not be formally recognised as a Project Management, Applied Finance specialist unless you complete either the Graduate Diploma or Master of Applied Finance.
Corporate Finance is an area of finance dealing with the financial decisions corporations make and the tools and analysis used to make these decisions. The primary goal of corporate finance is to maximise corporate value while reducing the firm’s financial risks. The subjects offered in this specialisation provide students with an opportunity to gain skills and techniques in financial analysis and valuation across a variety of areas.
This specialisation may be relevant to corporate finance roles including:
Investment analysis is the process of evaluating potential investment options (e.g. shares, bonds, real estate) to meet the specified investment goals of investors. The subjects offered in this specialisation provide students with an opportunity to learn quantitative and qualitative methodologies, formulate investment opinions, provide investment management services and undertake processes including elements of financial analysis, asset allocation, stock selection, and implement and provide ongoing monitoring of investments. They will be able to gain specific skills to analyse a broad range of investment options evaluating the profitability and risk of an investment.
This specialisation may be relevant to investment analysis roles including:
Specialisation table
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