The world is getting tougher, and the competition is getting fierce. Mere graduation or a post-graduation degree in your arsenal would not help you stand out and secure the job of your dreams. And this is no less than the truth in the world of finance as well. While graduation or post-graduation is necessary, in today's world, it won't help you gain a competitive edge over everyone else. To get decent opportunities with respect to securing jobs, one can do specialization or professional courses. But one must have a very clear vision regarding where their interests lie. This will help you to choose the optimum course for yourself. There are many short-term courses available in India which you can use to hone your skills. To help you choose your interest, we have compiled a short list of courses highly preferred by students and employers alike:1. Certified Financial Planner (CFP): If your interest lies in Financial Planning, Wealth Management or Banking, this is the perfect course for you. Many people lack awareness regarding Personal Finance, but things are changing, people are looking for professionals who can help them with it. This is where you come in. This course is internationally recognized and can fetch you some really good opportunities to excel in your career. Click here for full details: Certified financial planner course2. National Institute of Securities Market (NiSM) Certifications and NSE's Certification in Financial Markets (NCFM) The NiSM/NCFM Modules offered by the NiSM or National Stock Exchange Academy (respectively) are one of the most recognized certifications in the capital markets industry. If you want to work in a Stock Brokering Firm or a Bank in wealth management or equity trading or fixed income trading desk or support functions, these certifications can provide an added advantage. 3. Financial Modelling: Financial Modelling can be termed as the backbone of the financial market. Your job in this field will be to analyse historical data, and performance of an industry/company, and build financial models to improve their performance in the future. So? Do you want to become a Financial Modeller? 4. Financial Risk Manager (FRM): As a Financial Risk Manager, you are expected to identify and manage the risks that can get along with any investments or any business. The certification will also help you in roles like Risk Assessment, Financial Risk Consultant, and Asset Liability Management. These short-term courses will definitely help you in improving your skills and securing good jobs. Although, if you are looking for something much more comprehensive and detailed, you can always go for a CFA Program: 5. Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA): CFA is not a short-term course but it is one of the most comprehensive professional courses available. It is one of the few courses that can give an MBA Finance a serious run for their money. It is a globally recognized program that mainly focuses on imparting Investment knowledge to students. The program covers a broad range of topics relating to investment management, financial analysis, corporate finance, stocks, bonds, and derivatives, and provides a generalized knowledge of other areas of finance. So? Is this the course for you? Click here for full details:  Chartered Financial Analyst® (CFA® Program) The opportunities in the world of finance are huge, the only question is, are you ready to take on the challenge?

The indispensable need to gain some new skills and knowledge are contributing to the major shift of interest of aspirants towards short term courses in finance. Some fresh graduates look fr such courses so that they can easily put forth their inclination and interest for the subject in an interview. At the same time, the working professionals who may have already spent years in the industry feel the need of taking up such part time or short term courses in finance to be at par with the new concepts, terms and technologies and also to enhance their scope of work. Most of the top MBA college offer similar courses designed to meet the demands and challenges of the industry. International College of Financial Planning (ICoFP) offers one year diploma in financial planning and financial analysis for the executives. They give the advantage of exposure to their students along with an excellent team of professors who impart the new ideas and implement latest practices related to the subject knowledge. The students at such top MBA colleges such as ICoFP get sponsored by large companies and retail houses for doing these courses. They initiate their own professionals also to pursue these courses as it helps to assemble the skills required to meet the challenges and developments in the industry. Why should one opt for a short term course in finance when a full term degree is available? There are many confusions among the students who feel stuck amidst a two year degree and short term course. They have a doubt about the utility of the course. For them, there are three reasons that will help on deciding whether which one of these courses will suit their career more: - Short term courses save your time if you are already working. The emphasis will not be on the number classes to be attended but on the knowledge gained. - It is more of a practical learning and what you learn is what you apply at your workplace every day. You can study whenever you get time i.e. at home or at your own work desk. - having an additional degree will give you a competitive advantage over your peer group. If everyone at the same designation is having the same set of skills then often there is no visible choice with the management to consider any name for promotion easily. But with this additional skill on your portfolio there are 100% chances of an improved scope of work. What skills do these short term courses impart? The top MBA colleges that offer these courses frame a curriculum to determine the skills and objectives they want to impart to their students who pass out of these courses. ICFP has determined some of the following major objectives:

• To determine capital structure of an organization: - while assessing the capital structure of an organization, the client is the main objective that considers short and long term debt equity ratio.

• To determine the capital requirements:- the professionals have to assess the capital requirements taking into consideration the risk factors such as value of assets (current and fixed), promotional expenses, future budgeting etc.

• To frame the financial policies:- the lending and borrowing of cash, all other kind of cash inflows and outflows, requirement of financial resources etc. are a vital part of consideration while coming up with the financial policies for a company.

After completing these courses, the students get adequate exposure to finance as a subject and wealth management thereby. The companies look for talented professionals and hire them for good pay packages. This is one reason that why these short term courses in finance are gaining a momentum year by year.

It is evitable that the youth today is not like the previous generations. They are more aware and demanding in terms of a prosperous career. They look for a course that can give them maximum value benefits in lesser span of time. Moreover there are professionals who seek a degree during the course of their professional life that can help them to carve a niche and give an upper edge at work. For such segment of people one year finance courses are a very reliable and viable option of studying. Working professionals can pursue these courses easily by either taking a one year break or a correspondence weekend class based course. What are these courses? Various courses such as CFP (Certified Financial Planner^CM), Diploma in Financial Analysis offer an integral knowledge of business ventures along with a bottom line financial expertise. These courses not only offer a prescribed degree but also provide a bouquet of opportunities in the finance sector. PGD in Financial Planning: The conjoint of financial planning along with budgeting and capital management, this course equips its students with an intellectual of full-fledged finance modules and awards a prestigious degree to their resume. One can get a detailed knowledge of following subjects during this course:-

• Mutual funds
• Derivatives
• Security markets
• Commodity markets, etc.

PGD in Financial Analysis: With enriched knowledge of core finance, this course covers various subjects such as:

• Economics
• Quantitative methods
• Corporate finance
• Derivatives
• Financial reporting and analysis
• Portfolio management
• Wealth planning, etc.

The students get to learn about various relative business laws, partnerships, corporate finances etc. in this course. This diploma in Financial Analysis offers great exposure and tremendous potential to the deserving candidates. Who offers these courses? International College of Financial Planning has studied the need of such short term one year finance courses and introduced various certifications and courses in financial planning. Since 2002, the students have been benefitting and contributing their wisdom to the organizations through these courses. These courses are affiliated by a reputed autonomous body i.e. University Grants Commission (UGC). They have a 100 percent placement record for their students who require college assistance to start a promising career. They have designed these courses keeping in mind the critical demand of growing market conditions from financial professionals. The courses also cover the techniques of evaluating the client needs and status and thereby evolving appropriate investment strategies. They have a rich platter of worthy alumni who stand up as a witness to the goal oriented education imparted by International College of Financial Planning. What are the benefits of one year finance courses? It is not difficult to understand that such short term courses not only save time of students buy also award them with a different and wider perspective towards a job, situation or a client. These courses provide a competitive edge over peers and professionals in the same industry. Considering the advantages of these courses some of the organizations have started making it mandatory to have a certification of any of these courses for promotion or sometimes even entry into the company. Also some of the companies have started providing an aligned program to their employees in which they can pursue these courses along with their job or special leave privileges during exams. A recognized degree along with a good remuneration makes these one year finance courses a good pick for today's generation.

As the life and lifestyle become the crucial first needs of an individual, money comes as the de facto solution of the very intrinsic necessities of everyone existing. Just as the natural resources need time and planning to be invested and used in an efficient manner, money as a financial resource, needs diligent planning as well as architecture to be handled with efficacy. Along with the rising need to plan the finances well, there is utmost importance to have a financial planner who has adequate skills to capture the essence of work and refine the limits of money transactions. Just as the need of financial planners is rising day by day, so is the importance of the financial planning courses becoming a primary requisite for those interested in becoming a part of this lucrative industry. With the growing focus on financial planning in India, a spurt of programs that offer post graduate diploma in finance have begun. These courses have wide spectra of topics covering a diversified approach towards market and money management. Along with the courses there is ample room for the industrial training as these impart practical demonstration of the theologies studied during the classroom-structured program. Students must seek guidance on this issue as organizations formulate the trainings as per their products. They must be able to decide on the organization as well as the exact sector where they want to enforce their skills and leverage efforts in the chosen area of interest. Certified Financial Planner certification calls for long term as well as short term planning of monetary resources. Today there are various institutes that provide optimal professional courses in Finance as well as vocational courses to the students that readily prepare the candidate for the current market scenario. With the constantly changing world, the businesses have to be on guard all the time to be able to avoid any loss. Hence, several times the companies need financial planners to plan the complete outlay of investment in order to safeguard resources to the best possible limit. This makes it necessary for the courses to be rich in supplementing all types of theoretical as well as practical in-depth knowledge of the finances so that at crucial times the skills pay off. These courses must hence be planned by the industry stalwarts who have profound expertise in this area. The MBA in finance offer a highly lucrative career as the students pursuing these courses get opportunity to interact with real time wealth investments whether in less or large capacities. After having completed the course the students can choose any of the insurance, banking, stock broking, financial planning sector or even join some group of companies for wealth management. As the economy gets volatile and the nature of wealth gets more fragile, the need for financial planning cannot be denied. Therefore, the scope for financial planning students is ample and very rewarding.

The overall educations sector has seen some huge evolutionary changes over the years. It is not all about medical and engineering as students are moving beyond these two career paths. There is no denying the fact that financial sector has seen a huge boom in the recent years with the economy growing substantially. More and more students are now eyeing to become a certified financial planner and enter this sector because of the lucrative future.

However one should not deny the fact that it is not easy to make a mark for yourself, in this industry without any professional guidance. There is a need for dedication and knack for analysis which makes it easy for any person to manage risk assessment. A certified program comes in either short term courses in finance or a full fledge MBA degree. Students can choose between either. There are various modules that the students need to undertake during the course of time. These range from:

• Focuses on a basic knowledge of the financial areas and simple analysis using investment tools.
• Emphasizes application of investment tools and concepts with a focus on valuation of all types of assets.
• Focuses on synthesizing all of the concepts and analytical methods in a variety of applications for effective portfolio management and wealth planning after undergoing all these modules students can then assert different sectors for their future prospect. They can choose from stock broking, financial planner, asset management, banking, investment, and insurance.

A certified financial planner is surely a mark of distinction but incorporates huge responsibility of managing the finances of business or an individual. The main role of the financial planner is to ensure smooth runner of funds. This can either come from investments or current assets to build funds. However, they also need to be in lookout of financial crisis during which the analyst needs to tread carefully. This is where professional courses come in handy as they offer seamless knowledge of all the risks as well as hurdles that might come down your way.

Moreover many programs also provide internship programs in some of the most influential institutes. Here students can have firsthand experience of all the nitty gritty of the financial sector and its various aspects. After completing these programs you can then be recognized by investment professionals and investors as an advisor to manage their funds. Although the market of opportunities is huge in this sector, students need to nurture themselves from an early age. This is feasible by undergoing a professional course in finance so that you are aware of the overall market scenario. However the fact of the matter is that this sector is highly dynamic with various factors coming in play at a single time. This is why one must have ample patience and futuristic viewpoint for making timely decisions.

Each and every CFP coming out of these institutes is well versed with all the peripherals of financial industry and can easily portray skills to measure excellence in financial research, portfolio management, and asset capitalization.