Marketing (Applied)

This Pace+ Marketing (Applied) Associate of Science degree program leverages the existing marketing knowledge, skills, and abilities each student brings into the program as it prepares students to progress in their careers and educational paths. The pre-planned pathway of coursework and competencies builds on prior learning, ensuring students are best prepared to succeed as they move through the program. For students with work experience, this program will provide them with the knowledge and skills to move up the career ladder into a professional role or to progress further along a marketing career path.

Coursework emphasizes the language of marketing and business and builds cultural and demographic awareness. Topics include marketing, business operations, organization and planning, business ethics, problem solving, decision-making, presentation skills, and influence. Coursework in this degree further emphasizes communication and technical skills, including commonly used workplace tools and applications. Potential careers include Sales Representatives, Advertising Sales, Marketing Specialists, etc.

The existing degree has a history of 10 completions annually. Because this new Pace+ modality provides access to a population for whom a traditional online or in-person classroom setting does not meet their needs, we expect that a different population of learners will enroll in this degree program, so perhaps 15 to 20 completions.

“A primary mission of the California Community Colleges is to advance California’s economic growth and global competitiveness through education, training, and services that contribute to continuous workforce improvement.” (Ed Code 66010.4, item 3). This Marketing (Applied) Associate in Science supports this mission by assisting students to progress along a pathway into positions such as Sales Representatives, Advertising Sales, Marketing Specialists, etc., or to progress along an existing marketing-related career path in any industry.

This Marketing (Applied) Associate in Science is taught in the direct assessment (DA), competency-based education (CBE) modality as part of the Coastline College Pace+ program. It will provide each learner with a survey of marketing and product management operations. It also includes applied learning in business operations, interpersonal communication, and general business practices. Coursework emphasizes the language of marketing and builds cultural and demographic awareness. Curricula in this certificate further emphasize communication and technical skills, including commonly used workplace tools and applications. Competencies mastered in the program include: Customer Orientation, Business Thinking, Organization and Planning, Presentation Skills, Financial Acumen I and II, Technology Savvy, Sensitivity, and Communicativeness.

A degree in Marketing signals to employers that recipients have obtained knowledge, have practiced skills, and demonstrated abilities in planning and executing the functions of marketing, including defining and pricing products, planning their production, and developing and executing marketing plans. There are projected to be 5,787 annual job openings in these marketing occupations just in Orange County, related to this certificate (OC COE, “Marketing (Applied) Endorsement”, 2025). Marketing and Distribution are within the Business and Entrepreneurship sector. This sector ranks among the top seven (7) sectors in the region, and entry-level hourly wages are $38.79, well above the self-sufficiency wage of $27.13 for Orange County (OC COE, “Paving the Path to Opportunity”, 2025). 

This DA CBE program builds on the learner’s pre-existing skills, knowledge, abilities, and competencies. For those who are currently working in the field, this program will provide them with the knowledge and skills to move up the career ladder to a more professional marketing role or to move to another product management-related role within a company.

For the degree: The college has licensed the Polaris® Leadership Model from Organization Systems International (OSI). A subset (16) of the 41 competencies in this model was selected as the basis for this direct assessment (DA), competency-based education (CBE) degree, as the degree supports early career employees. As the competencies were mapped to courses, a multi-disciplinary Marketing degree was developed. In response to employer and Advisory Board feedback, the program contains four (4) courses from the Communication Studies (CMST) discipline, three (3) from the Computer Information Systems (CIS) discipline, and eight (8) from the Business (BUS) and Management (MGMT) disciplines. Specific general education courses were selected to complement this general Marketing degree.

For the certificate: The college has licensed the Polaris® Leadership Model from Organization Systems International (OSI). A subset (6) of the 41 competencies in this model was selected as the basis for this direct assessment (DA), competency-based education (CBE) certificate, to support early career employees. As the competencies were mapped to courses, a multi-disciplinary Marketing certificate was developed. In response to employer and Advisory Board feedback, the program contains a Communication Studies (CMST) course and a Computer Information Systems (CIS) course.

For the AS degree:

* Meets the Coastline College Global Society graduation Requirement

For the certificate:

Before completing this section, review the college’s existing program inventory in the CCC Curriculum Inventory, then address the following questions:

• Do any active inventory records need to be made inactive or changed in connection with the approval of the proposed program? If yes, please specify.

No.

• Does the program replace any existing program(s) on the college’s inventory? Provide relevant details if this program is related to the termination or scaling down of another program(s).

No.

• What related programs are offered by the college?

A traditional Marketing pathway exists at the college. A Supply Chain Management pathway also exists at the college, but this certificate is separate from these programs, with different target jobs.

Many other colleges in the county provide some form of Marketing certificate. However, Coastline College will be the only college in the region offering this Marketing (Applied) Certificate of Achievement in a direct assessment, CBE modality, therefore not competing with the online, hybrid, and in-person offerings of the certificates below:

These certificates are all similar, which helps employers know that the same core set of marketing skills is incorporated into the certificate programs, giving the employer confidence that candidates have foundational preparation for marketing roles within an organization.

However, the Coastline Pace+ Marketing (Applied) Certificate of Achievement is significantly differentiated from the other offerings in its direct assessment, CBE modality.

Annual enrollment is expected to be 20 - 30 students.