The "Betriebswirtschafter / Betriebswirtschafterin HF" and "Betriebswirtschaft NDS HF" courses can be distinguished as follows:

• HF courses, such as Business Administration HF, provide generalist specialist and management knowledge within the respective specialist area.
• Postgraduate courses in HF offer the opportunity for further specialization and in-depth study as well as the acquisition of additional specialist knowledge.
• HF courses generally last between 2 and 4 years.
• NDS-HF courses usually last 1 year.

What both have in common is that they are recognized by the State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI).

A HF Business Processes course (now HF Process Technology) is an initial further education course that leads to a federal diploma following upper secondary level education and possible professional experience. A NDS-HF in the field of business processes, on the other hand, is a postgraduate course at a university of applied sciences, which already requires higher education, i.e. a federal diploma from a university of applied sciences, a federal certificate, a university of applied sciences or university degree and usually several years of professional experience. An NDS-HF is therefore a further education course that can only be obtained after an HF or similar qualification.