Senior Leader Apprenticeship
About the course
Our Level 7 Senior Leader Apprenticeship shapes innovative leaders who excel in creativity and strategic thinking. Participants acquire the practical knowledge and skills highly valued by today’s employers.
In addition to the support provided by academic faculty from the University, apprentices also benefit from guidance by industry professionals in the workplace, refining their practical abilities and skills, and reaching their full potential on the job. This programme seamlessly integrates the Postgraduate Diploma in Business Administration with the L7 Senior Leader Apprenticeship, providing tangible advantages for both individuals and organisations.
Tailored to meet the demands of the contemporary economy, the curriculum features dynamic units addressing current challenges, empowering students to succeed. The curriculum integrates work-based learning and assessments, providing practical insights into real-world challenges. Immersive organisational visits enrich the learning journey, offering firsthand exposure to diverse business environments and practices. With the backing of our experienced academic team, this qualification nurtures innovation, fosters creativity, and hones essential meta-skills, evident in the innovative assessment methods employed across the programme.
Programme highlights
- Flexible Learning: Pursue a prestigious PG Diploma, balancing part-time study alongside your existing job commitments.
- Practical Focus: Dive into industry best practices and real-world projects supported by cutting-edge research.
- Critical Thinking: Challenge your assumptions and gain a critical, reflexive approach to strategic leadership and management.
- Global Perspective: Develop a strategic global outlook to drive impactful change within your organisation.
- Further Advancement: Opportunity to 'top up' to a full Executive MBA
Qualifications
Upon completion of the programme, all successful graduates are awarded the following prestigious qualifications:
- CMI Level 7 Postgraduate Diploma in Strategic Management & Leadership Practice
- Level 7 Postgraduate Diploma in Business Administration
- Level 7 Senior Leader Apprenticeship
Units of study
This stimulating unit enhances the strategic capabilities of multi-disciplinary leaders by providing them with the knowledge and skills necessary to effectively lead and manage integrated innovation at both operational and strategic levels. In addition to exploring topics such as corporate social responsibility (CSR), ethics, and sustainability, the unit clarifies the distinction between strategy and mere planning. While planning focuses on short-term actions, strategy encompasses the long-term scope and direction of an organisation. Guided by an understanding of their external environment, as well as their internal resources and capabilities, organisations make critical decisions that shape their future. This unit delves into strategic issues that are common across various sectors, as well as those that are unique to specific industries.
This inspiring unit supports aspirations to finance and launch an enterprise. It reflects upon your entrepreneurial potential and assists you in finding a business idea, as well as developing a business model and business plan. We will explore how the process of entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial leadership needs to evolve as the organisation grows and develops.
This challenging and stimulating unit offers a comprehensive critical and integrated exploration of core business functions and the necessary interactions for achieving commercial success. It directly engages in the debates organisations face across these functions, arising from strategic pressures. Throughout the unit, you will develop a deep understanding of the business, its functions, and their interrelationships, enabling you to make well-informed decisions. With a focus on organisational planning and adopting a holistic perspective, including sustainability and individual liberty, it incorporates viewpoints from various organisational roles. Drawing from contemporary research insights, its bold approach lays the groundwork for critical problem-solving and cultivates the confidence to engage in debates and deliver creatively and commercially successful projects while appreciating performance objectives.
These are both exciting and daunting times for leaders, HR professionals, and talent managers. Organisations are facing dynamic challenges due to shifting demographic trends, evolving societal norms regarding freedom, rights, and responsibilities, and the rapid advancement of AI and other technologies. Over the next twenty to thirty years, many existing jobs will disappear while numerous new, unimaginable roles emerge. In light of these developments, two crucial questions arise:
- What knowledge or actions are essential for managers of all kinds to be effective in both today's and tomorrow's business world?
- How and where can organizations find and retain talent possessing the flexible skills necessary for current and future organizational sustainability?
These questions form the cornerstone of this unit, guiding our exploration of strategies to navigate the complexities of the evolving workforce landscape.
High-performing leaders demonstrate self-awareness and excel in problem-solving and decision-making processes, leveraging their understanding of both their own and others' capabilities. In the 21st-century VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, Ambiguity) world, organisational complexity underscores the need for creativity and a deep comprehension of how to unlock untapped potential.
This engaging unit offers you the opportunity to explore and expand your capacity for creative leadership. Effective promotion of creativity requires an understanding of internal environmental factors to ensure that creative ideas are nurtured into successful innovations, rather than hindered by conflicting expectations, strategies, or institutionalised routines.
This unit aims to empower you with the ability to comprehend and critically evaluate various behavioral science models, enabling you to flexibly select and apply them to meet organisational demands in diverse situations. This approach aims to inspire high performance, creativity, and innovation, underpinned by influential contemporary research.
These sessions, led by an Executive Coach, serve as the cornerstone for ongoing personal, professional, and organisational leadership development, encouraging participants to push their boundaries and strive for growth. They equip you with essential tools for research and learning, focusing on skills and behaviors such as self-awareness, respect, tolerance, reflective practice, collaborative teamwork, enhanced problem-solving, and personal branding. Furthermore, these sessions serve to integrate the learning from the entire course, facilitating portfolio building as we progress towards our goals.
Upon finishing the Senior Leader Apprenticeship, individuals who successfully complete their end-point assessment will attain either Chartered Manager or Chartered Fellow status. This programme also grants apprentices the opportunity to seek continuous professional membership with the Chartered Management Institute (CMI), a globally recognised professional organisation.
Entry requirements
- A minimum of two years' work experience in a management related role (by management experience we mean experience of managing staff, budget or other resources).
- An honours degree (this does not have to be a business specific degree). We also accept candidates without an honours degree if they can demonstrate substantial management related work experience.
- English and Maths to Level 2 are included, if not held at entry.
Fees - Companies with an annual wage bill below £3m will only pay £700 over two years (£350 per annum) for this apprenticeship, as the government funds 95% of the full fee. If you are a Levy-paying organisation then this apprenticeship will cost £14,000 from your Levy fund. As a business of any size, you may also use your Apprenticeship Service Account to apply for funding from large businesses that want to transfer their unspent Levy to fund 100% of your apprenticeship training and assessment costs.
Meet David Williams
Get to know David, your supportive mentor and Course Coordinator for the Senior Leader Apprenticeship.
Explore his rich background, learn about his three decades of experience, areas of expertise, and personal interests. Discover the person behind the role, ready to assist you with a smile on your apprenticeship journey!
