I want to change career and pursue a generalist path, perhaps operations. I'm self funding my studies and have a limited budget of 12k GBP. Im not working so full time courses are fine, but an online course is preferable due to family commitments.

I have 12 years experience in finance and accounting. The roles range from transactional to reporting to analyst. I have never managed a team and have no leadership experience. Frankly, my career has stalled and I just dont enjoy the work anymore.

Im a UK resident and don't have any goals beyond beginning a journey towards a career in leadership, formulating strategy and delivering incremental improvement. There's no particular sector or geographical region I want to target at this time. Finally, my network has zero people in it. Will an MSc be comparible in developing my network or will there no contest?

Do my goals need to be more focused or nuanced for either MBA or MSc? I really want a formal qualification as I'm not convinced by online alternatives from the likes of coursera, udemy etc in bring recognised by UK employers.

So far my understanding of the what I've read in other posts here would suggest I'd be right in saying that an MBA is not for me? Could I benefit from doing a MSc in my case? and is "triple crown accreditation" really relevant for MSc considering that those accreditations are specifically for MBAs

Lastly is MIM a specific designation or is it a catch all term for MSc's in Management?

You have a couple of things to clarify
- Goals: Look at jobs in LinkedIn using your keywords. Which of them are most attractive. Develop a working hypothesis about the role you want.
- Online management MSc/On-campus operations MSc. If you don't know the role you want, don't have a network and want careers support then study on campus if you can. On campus you can choose between general management, like a MiM, or a degree focussed on operations. There are no online MSc degrees in operations that will meet your budget.

[Edited by Duncan on Feb 08, 2021]

Thanks Duncan, I'll take your advice on going fleshing out a hypothesis about the role I want. 

I'm the meantime, let's say for the purposes of this discussion my end goal was to become a COO, would a specialised degree in operations be more favourable over a MIM? 

I think that would depend on the courses and schools. 

And on the company where you plan on being a COO.