Key Facts

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Start Dates: Oct

Attendance: Part-time day

Course Level:Postgraduate

Duration: 2 Years

Campus Location: Bedford Campus

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About the course

CIPD Approved centre

HR is changing – it is more business focused, internationally oriented and adds more value than ever.

This course provides new or unqualified practitioners and line managers with the knowledge, understanding and skills to be highly effective HR specialists.

Using critical analysis and investigation, you will develop an understanding of the business context of HR, and its role in driving performance.

Intermediate qualifications available:

Postgraduate certificate – 60 credits at Masters level

Choose Human Resource Management PgDip at Bedfordshire and:

Study employee resourcing, learning, development, reward and relations on a part-time, modular course that is designed to fit in with your existing work commitments
Explore your practical skills and widen your understanding of the HR issues that affect a range of local and national, public, private and not-for-profit organisations
Develop alongside other engaged and ambitious students currently working in personnel and development roles
Gain Associate Membership with the eligibility to be upgraded to a Chartered Member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development following completion of the course
Benefit from the development of strategic specialist HR and generic management skills that will enable you to make a creative and motivating contribution to organisational effectiveness.

Why choose this course?

In the fast moving world of HRM, professional qualifications are an important way to build your knowledge and demonstrate expertise in the workplace. This course will develop your critical thinking and understanding of organisations as well as your learning how to develop creative and strategic HR solutions for sustained organisational performance. The professional level of Associate membership of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) is achieved upon completion.

PG Alumni Discount

Unit Information - What will I learn?

Units

Hrm In A Strategic Business Context (PRO009-6) Compulsory
Leading, Managing And Developing People (PRO010-6) Compulsory
Learning And Talent Development (PRO013-6) Compulsory
Management Research Report (PRO015-6) Compulsory
Managing Employment Relations (PRO012-6) Compulsory
Performance And Reward Management (PRO014-6) Compulsory
Reflective Practice In Business Leadership (PRO016-6) Compulsory
Resourcing And Talent Management (PRO011-6) Compulsory

How will I be assessed?

Assessments are closely linked to the CIPD’s objectives and learning outcomes for their advanced standards in HRM and are therefore written with this in mind.

The overall assessment strategy for this course is therefore to achieve a balance between the assessment of academic understanding and evaluation and the assessment of competences and skills that are valuable in organisations and to your development as a HR practitioner and member of the CIPD.

Your learning will be gauged through a variety of summative and formative assessments. For example, summatively there will be:

exams;
short and long written business reports and papers;
case study analysis;
individual and group presentations;
a management research report and the development of a reflective skills portfolio.

All assessments explore topical HR issues to enable the integration of theory and practice into authentic ‘real world’ contexts. There will be key emphasis on continuous learning with every piece of work, questioning: what have you learned from this activity?

This approach then becomes part of your pedagogic practice allowing you to become better autonomous reflectors. Underpinning each assessment, consideration must be made to ethics, diversity and legal issues impacting the business.

Formative assessment will be provided through verbal feedback on: in-class presentations, coursework activities, mock exams and through the management research report supervision.

The creation of your reflective portfolio in the second year will also assist in your CIPD membership upgrade.

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Entry Requirements

Applicants should have a good undergraduate degree at Honours level, or equivalent.

To apply for a place on a postgraduate course (MA/MSc/MBA) at the University of Bedfordshire you should have a good first degree and the required English language qualification

Find out more about specific entry requirements for your country

To apply for a postgraduate degree (MA/MSc/MBA/LLM) at the University of Bedfordshire you should have a good honours degree (or equivalent qualification) in an appropriate subject from a recognised university or HE institution.

We will also consider candidates with other relevant qualifications or appropriate work experience.

You also need to have the required English language qualification

Contact your country’s International Admissions Team for more information.

Find out more about specific entry requirements for your country

Entry Requirements

UK

Applicants should have a good undergraduate degree at Honours level, or equivalent.

EU

To apply for a place on a postgraduate course (MA/MSc/MBA) at the University of Bedfordshire you should have a good first degree and the required English language qualification

Find out more about specific entry requirements for your country

International

We will also consider candidates with other relevant qualifications or appropriate work experience.

You also need to have the required English language qualification

Contact your country’s International Admissions Team for more information.

The course welcomes applications from potential students with no formal qualifications furthering the widening participation strategy of the University and increasing the diversity of the course in line with the University's Education Strategy. The course also welcomes applicants from all sectors and job roles ranging from HR assistants through to senior HR managers and a variety of junior, middle and senior management roles. You will be interviewed by the course co-ordinator (where applicable) to determine suitability for the course. You will be required to be working within an HR role or as a line manager or supervisor (with responsibility for managing other workers).

Additional: You will be expected to register as a member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. Where you are not currently in work you must have previous experience in work organisations as well as access to an organisation for research information.

How will this course improve my career prospects?

This course is designed for you to pursue a professional career in the field of human resource management. The portfolio that you will create for the Reflective Practice in Business Leadership unit can be used as partial evidence towards your upgrade from Associate Member to Chartered Member of the CIPD.

On completion of the course you are provided with an extra opportunity to meet with the teaching team (CIPD regional branch committee members and past and present membership upgrade panel members) to discuss the CIPD’s expectations for upgrading and how you might best fulfil the stated criteria.

On completing this course you are likely to progress into one or more of the following areas:

Professional HR role with responsibility for HR decision-making within an organisation at operational, tactical or more strategic level.
Specialist HRM roles in the field of: resourcing and talent management, employee reward, employment relations, learning and talent development.
Independent or employed consultants who support organisations in meeting their goals and specifically concerned with the management and development of employees.
Professional HR role within organisations concerned with public policy matters relating to employment affairs and communication.

Further study

You may wish to transfer your credits (RPL) to complete the MSc in Human Resource Management at the University (60 further credits).