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University of Bedfordshire
Park Square
Luton
Bedfordshire
UK, LU1 3JU
Delivered through a series of master classes over a 2 year period in an employee-friendly format of weekend blocks, the course brings together learning opportunities tailored to the needs of you and your organisation, culminating in a work-based, employer-approved project on a real work issue. You will benefit from new ideas and knowledge by experts at the forefront of their specialisms allowing you to revitalise your organisation and to develop the knowledge and skills essential to the workforce of the future. Work-based routes provide an opportunity to gain a Higher Education qualification even if you have no traditional academic qualifications. The University teaching staff and the Course Mentor will work jointly to help you to learn from your experience to:
For each unit there will be a two-day workshop where the focus will be on exploring relevant knowledge and theory, and sharing of experiences and perspectives between course members and tutors. Each unit will also have a one-day follow-up workshop. Each unit has its own mix of teaching, learning and assessment methods to provide a varied learning experience. You will be encouraged to participate in action learning sets - small groups of participants who support each other through sharing ideas and solving problems.
The Course Mentor will support you to bridge the requirements of study and the experiences and opportunities available to you at work. He or she will be able to help you to identify suitable experiences to form the basis for further investigation and assessment. Where there are no suitable opportunities within your own organisation, the Course Mentor may seek out relevant opportunities from elsewhere in the network of employers.
You will be a member of several teams, at work and in the context of study. The unit `Developing Leadership and Management Practice will focus on building teams and enhancing working relationships within the organisation and across networks more widely. As well as considering team working conceptually, action learning sets will act as small `sub-teams within the whole course group to share ideas and address organisational opportunities and problems. Several of the unit assessment tasks require team work. Planning and leading change at work is also a team activity and involves negotiation and eliciting the support and co-operation of managers and colleagues.
Personalised learner development is a key feature of the Universitys approach to curriculum. The purpose is to develop your awareness of the learning process and self-understanding as a learner, to enhance your preparedness for future opportunities. This is initiated in the level 4 unit `Developing Leadership and Management Practice in which the key concepts of reflective learning and critical thinking will be explored. The unit will also provide opportunities for `self-diagnosis of your capabilities as a learner and as a leader. Subsequently, the teaching and assessment will draw strongly on these capabilities by exploring theory critically and reflectively and by encouraging you to demonstrate your reflective practice as a manager in your assessed work. The theme of reflective learning will also be pursued in the e-portfolio which you will maintain throughout the course as a personal record of your achievements.
The aim is to relate assessment to your activities at work, as far as possible. In general, the work you present for assessment will be based on your practice as a manager and your reflection on it, using relevant theory. There will be a variety of group and individual assessment methods used across the different units. These include individual presentations and reports, group presentations and reports as well as portfolios. The actual content of the portfolio differs across units for example, for the `Developing Leadership and Management Practice unit the portfolio includes a personal development plan as well as a reflection of ongoing development activities. On the other hand, for the `Organisational and Environmental Analysis unit the portfolio will consist of a summative reflective statement. The content type of the reports (individual and group) is also varied with different units requiring reflective reports, critical analyses, or proposals for change. There will also be formative assessment opportunities in a number of units, these include the `Managing Creativity and Innovation, `Defining an Action Learning Project and `Leadership of Innovation project (details of these formative assessments are provided in the respective unit information forms). You will also be provided with a formative academic writing opportunity. This will be a session run by the Professional Academic Development (PAD) team of the University. This session will provide useful information for achieving the standards required in your assessment tasks. Since these opportunities are `formative, they are not formally assessed. However, they contribute to learning and development reflected in your formal assessments.
Assessment is designed to be developmental and should extend your intellectual and practical skills. You will receive constructive feedback from course tutors and your peers within the group, which you can use to inform your continuing development.
Because each piece of assessed work will be developed within the context of your organisation (or an organisation of a fellow group member, if the assessment involves group work) it will be unique to you, or your group. In the follow-up workshop for each unit, you will be supported to plan your assessed work so that the requirements of the assessment are set within your organisational context, and undertaking assessment makes a meaningful difference to your own, and organisational, practice.
Some units (usually the larger, 30 credit units) will have two assessment points rather than one, to enable you to approach the assessment in two stages rather than `all in one go. The first assessment will either be formative (i.e., will provide you with constructive feedback but will not contribute anything to your marks) or will have a low weighting (so might provide 20-30% of the overall mark for the unit). An example of a two-part assessment process could be a task which required students to introduce a change at work. At the first assessment point, you might be required to present the plan for the change to tutors and peers in class. The purpose of this first stage would be to provide you with constructive feedback on the plan, and give approval for it. The second, final part of assessment would be a presentation covering the implementation and evaluation of the change.
The first stage of the course is at level 4 and the second stage at level 5. This shift is reflected in assessment which is more challenging both intellectually and practically at the higher level. At level 4 you will be expected to show that you have acquired a relevant conceptual knowledge base and can apply this to address organisational problems and opportunities. Assessment tasks will be closely specified. At level 5 you will be expected to demonstrate more independence in your academic work and managerial practice, and you will have more choice and freedom over the precise nature of assessment tasks. This will involve seeking out knowledge from a variety of perspectives, selecting techniques and concepts for application, independently undertaking analysis, and creating and implementing new organisational processes and activities.
Upon successful completion of this course, you should be able to:
QAA subject benchmarks for General business and management (2007)
Foundation degree qualification benchmarks (May 2010)
Management and Leadership National Occupational Standards 2008 (Council for Administration)
QAA Code of practice Section 9: Work-based and placement learning September 2007
This course aims to develop your capacity for effective management, leadership and organisational innovation. It aims to enhance your ability to integrate theory and practice, learn from experience at work, and apply what you have learned back into your organisation by introducing changes to organisational structures and processes. The course will encourage you to adopt a questioning stance towards current theory and practice in management so that you are able to experiment with new approaches in the workplace.
The aim in the first stage of the course is to develop your knowledge, understanding and skills as a manager and leader in the context of your organisation and its wider social, political, economic and ethical environment. In the second stage of the course, the emphasis progresses to organisational change and innovation. The course culminates with a project in which you will be supported to plan, introduce and evaluate a specific organisational change. Therefore, as well as developing you as an individual, our aim is that the course also develops your organisation and thus satisfies the needs of both employees and employers.
There will be a wide variety of sources of support for your study. The unit tutors units will be able to deal with queries relating to their particular subject areas. The Course Leader will provide support for the course as a whole. The UoB Course Leader will work closely with Bedfordshire Chamber of Commerce Business Development Manager throughout the course, so that problems arising in both work and study can be addressed. You will also be allocated a Personal Tutor who can support your academic development and act as a first point of contact for any anxieties that may arise.
If you have a difficulty or query that they cannot resolve, you have access to the full range of University support services. Your fellow students should also be a source of support and ideas.
In addition to University-based support, there will be a Mentor working for Bedfordshire Chamber of Commerce whose primary role will be to support learning based at work. The Mentor will become familiar with the situation at your workplace and will be able to help identify opportunities for work-based learning, support the implementation of these projects and encourage you to reflect on them, so that you can integrate theoretical understanding with practice at work. The Mentor can also provide a sympathetic ear and will liaise with the UoB Course Team to raise concerns.
As a course member, you will be a member of several teams, at work and in the context of study. The unit `Developing Leadership and Management Practice will focus on building teams and enhancing working relationships within the organisation and across networks more widely. As well as considering team working conceptually, action learning sets will act as small `sub-teams within the whole course group to share ideas and address organisational opportunities and problems. Several of the unit assessment tasks require team work. Planning and leading change at work is also a team activity and involves negotiation and eliciting the support and co-operation of managers and colleagues.
Career:
The course provides various means by which you will be able to consolidate or enhance your career as a manager. As well as providing relevant subject knowledge, it will also develop your ability to learn from experience at work and elsewhere. It will give you the opportunity to work with networks of peers and with the Chamber of Commerce.
Further study:
On completing this course you may be able to complete a part-time distance top-up course in order to obtain an Honours degree.
Additional:
Many students studying for foundation degrees come to us through work-based routes so you can apply for a foundation degree even if you dont have traditional academic qualifications.
Work-based learning forms a central part of the course and therefore suitable applicants will normally be employed in roles which give them opportunities to practice management, leadership and organisational innovation. These roles can be in the form of full-time or part-time work, work placements, paid or voluntary work. All recruitment will be conducted jointly with Bedfordshire Chamber of Commerce, to assess each applicants ability to contribute to and benefit from the course.
A foundation degree will be of particular interest if you have completed a Modern Apprenticeship, vocational A levels, BTEC National or equivalent.
Foundation degrees are also particularly suitable if you want to qualify while working.
Many students studying for foundation degrees come to us through work-based routes so you can apply for a foundation degree even if you don’t have traditional academic qualifications.
We welcome applicants with relevant work experience.
We will consider you as an individual and take into account all elements of your application, not just your qualifications. We are looking for both breadth and depth in your current studies as well as enthusiasm for the subject you wish to study.
The general requirement is one of the following:
Postgraduate applications (MA/MSc) should be made direct to the University using the standard University application form. There are some exceptions, please see individual course descriptions for details.
As a general guide, to apply for a place on an undergraduate course (BA/BSc) at the University you need to have completed your high school education and have the required English qualification.
We have students from all the European Union member countries so we are quick to make decisions on most qualifications.
(Please note that applicants on a full student visa are not eligible for part-time study)
We recommend that you apply directly to the University where possible, as this allows us to offer the quickest turnaround time for your application.
Please read the Direct application instructions before completing the course application form.
Application forms for accommodation in the student halls at Bedford campus and Luton campus are available in the Student life section
APL is available for international students applying for undergraduate (Bachelor degree) study. Please do not use this APL form to apply for postgraduate courses.
Use the APL form to tell us about any non-standard qualifications and/or work experience you have that you think should be taken into consideration with your application. `
The APL form should be submitted at the same time as the course application form.
We regret we are unable to process APL forms from students who have not submitted a formal course application form.
Return your completed application to:
University of Bedfordshire
International Admissions
Park Square
Luton
Bedfordshire
LU1 3JU
United Kingdom
T: +44 (0)1582 489326 (non-EU Students)
F: +44 (0)1582 743469
E: international-admissions@beds.ac.uk
The aim of the teaching strategy is to enable you to learn from your experience as a manager. The UoB teaching staff and the Mentor will work jointly to help you to:
For each unit there will be a two-day workshop where the focus will be on exploring relevant knowledge and theory, and sharing of experiences and perspectives between course members and tutors. Each unit has its own mix of teaching, learning and assessment methods to provide a varied learning experience. You will be encouraged to participate in action learning sets small groups of participants who support each other through sharing ideas and solving problems. You will also be expected to read independently in order to broaden and deepen your understanding of management. The course materials will be accessible through BREO, the Universitys virtual learning environment. BREO also enables interactive discussion and debate with tutors and course members, so that conversations can continue outside the context of the workshops. Each unit will also have a one-day follow-up workshop to support you to plan your assessment (discussed in the following section). You will be supported to work on an e-portfolio to help you to plan, record and review your progress and plan further development opportunities.
The Mentor will support you to bridge the requirements of study and the experiences and opportunities available to you at work. He or she will be able to help you to identify suitable experiences to form the basis for further investigation and assessment. Where there are no suitable opportunities within your own organisation, the Mentor may seek out relevant opportunities from elsewhere in the network of employers.
The course therefore brings together learning opportunities from the workplace and academic study. Your role as a student involves using these resources wisely and proactively, to make the most of these opportunities for your development as a manager, and the development of your organisation.
There are four core skills that all UoB courses are expected to focus on: communication, information literacy, research and evaluation, and creativity and critical thinking. All these core skills are critical in the context of managing and leading, in a wider organisational environment in which it is vital to innovate in products, services and processes.
Communication
In order to be an effective and creative manager it is essential that your communication skills are of a very high standard. Throughout the course you will be expressing your ideas, questions and arguments in a wide variety of social contexts, in the classroom and at work. You will be supported to develop the ability to communicate clearly and logically in a manner that is sensitive to the needs of the audience. To help with the development of this, study skills support will be provided as part of the induction. Ongoing unit assessment will also develop a variety of oral and written communication skills such as reflective writing, making presentations, and chairing group discussions.
Information Literacy
Throughout the course you will be accessing, evaluating and using information from a wide range of sources, such as organisational information, web-based material and scholarly articles and books. We will support you to develop skills in accessing, evaluating and making sense of this literature so that you can incorporate it into your reflective learning.
Research and Evaluation
Research and evaluation skills are central to the course. The focus on independent research increases at level 5, especially in the final unit, the Leadership of Innovation Project. This gives you the opportunity to plan, introduce and evaluate an organisational change and allows you to pursue your topic of interest independently and in depth. Doing this will require you to conduct independent research, drawing on a range of sources, as well as conducting primary research, usually in the form of action research. These independent research skills will be developed in the Project Preparation unit in which you will be supported to identify and plan a suitable method for your project and to develop and use skills in researching relevant information. Since the project may require the involvement of colleagues, customers or other stakeholders, you may need to engage with the ethics approval process before commencing work on the project.
Creativity and Critical Thinking
Creativity and critical thinking are essential skills for organisational innovation. In all the units, especially level 5 units, you will be encouraged to think critically and imaginatively about your practice and about management theory, with a view to developing your practice as a leader, together with the systems and processes used in your organisation. Concepts and practices related to critical thinking will be introduced in the `Developing Leadership and Management Practice unit. The focus on this skill area is then given further emphasis in the level 5 unit `Managing Creativity and Innovation.
Team Working
As a course member, you will be a member of several teams, at work and in the context of study. The unit `Developing Leadership and Management Practice will focus on building teams and enhancing working relationships within the organisation and across networks more widely. As well as considering team working conceptually, action learning sets will act as small `sub-teams within the whole course group to share ideas and address organisational opportunities and problems. Several of the unit assessment tasks require team work. Planning and leading change at work is also a team activity and involves negotiation and eliciting the support and co-operation of managers and colleagues.
Personalised learner development is a key feature of the Universitys approach to curriculum. The purpose is to develop your awareness of the learning process and self-understanding as a learner, to enhance your preparedness for future opportunities. This is initiated in the level 4 unit `Developing Leadership and Management Practice in which the key concepts of reflective learning and critical thinking will be explored. The unit will also provide opportunities for `self-diagnosis of your capabilities as a learner and as a leader. Subsequently, the teaching and assessment will draw strongly on these capabilities by exploring theory critically and reflectively and by encouraging you to demonstrate your reflective practice as a manager in your assessed work. The theme of reflective learning will also be pursued in the e-portfolio which you will maintain throughout the course as a personal record of your achievements.
You will be supported and encouraged to maintain an ongoing record of your learning and achievement in an e-portfolio. This is a personal online space which is intended to support your learning and enable you to gather important data together with reflections and feedback, in an easily accessible place. You can use the e-portfolio for a variety of purposes, including:
`Professional Standards refers to the attitudes and behaviours we value as a Course Team and hope to share and hold to with our students. As a manager and leader, you are in an influential position and inevitably act as a role model for others at work. The course will be more fulfilling, enjoyable and effective if we act courteously and considerately to each other. The behaviours that we expect from ourselves and from you are that we:
These standards are developed and embedded throughout the course with its focus on enhancing organizational practice and personal development. There will be an opportunity near the beginning of the course for you and your peers to negotiate and agree standards which will enhance your experience on the course and enable you to get the most out of learning opportunities in the classroom and at work.
