Senior Leader Degree Apprenticeship | MBA - in partnership with QA

Entering Postgraduate higher education requires specific skills and attributes to both manage your studies, and to communicate effectively your ideas within the academic community. This module aims to support this development at a level appropriate for where you join your programme of study.

You will develop the underpinning skills which support independent study and research, and which thereby support the remainder of your programme. These skills will also benefit you in the workplace and are transferrable in terms of undertaking business related communications and research.

You will develop your academic and intellectual skills, through applying criticality and communication skills, secondary and primary research and the development to new knowledge.

The outline syllabus will be based on the following themes:

• Learning styles and academic literacies – how these influence research and communication approaches
• Research rich learning and teaching
• Managing academic projects – how to plan effectively and appropriately
• Searching for information to support effective study - conducting primary and secondary research
• Academic Writing – in particular the presentation of research, and the development of critical literature reviews
• Professional Writing - in particular the presentation of research and management reports
• Presentation skills – in particular the persuasive presentation of research
• Developing criticality – the critical analysis of both secondary sources and primary data, and of your own independent research
• Citation and referencing skills – how to appropriately acknowledge the sources of the information that you use
• Ethics – the importance of ethics in your own and other’s research and NU Ethics Policy
• Profession Skills and Behaviours - resources to support the development and practice of a range of skills to support your professional impact in the workplace
• Personal Development and career planning – How to plan your personal and professional development and develop approaches to career planning
• Digital Portfolio Building - Building your Portfolio of Practice using Pebble Plus

The module will help you engage with the management challenges involved in managing individuals, teams and organisations. You will gain an understanding of theories and models within the field of organisational behaviour, and the ways in which this knowledge has been applied in terms of techniques and approaches such as human resource management. The module will enable you to apply the concepts introduced to make sense of your own experiences in organizations, to recognise the importance of these aspects of management in an overall understanding of management, and enable you to apply them to your own management practice.

You will be able to develop your knowledge and critical appreciation of the key components of accounting and finance and be able to apply these within the context of a successful public, private or not-for-profit organisation. Specifically, this module provides you with a foundation in the key principles of corporate financial management and their practical application, covering the issues of cost of capital, capital budgeting and capital structure, financial markets, analysis and investments in a world where finance is an international language. Key concepts in relation to investment and financing decisions, operational controls and structures of governance, financial health and growth strategies are all included. You will be able to build your knowledge starting with how to choose and appraise an investment decision; dealing with operational matters that keep the business running; using finance and accounting techniques to strategically manage the direction of the business and finally, looking at how corporate expansion can successfully and sustainably take place. This module is designed to strengthen your ability in applying knowledge to complex issues, both systematically and creatively, so that theory is converted into practice from a critical and informed perspective in order to enhance organisational effectiveness and competitiveness. The module also investigates how financial information can be used to inform strategic plans and operational decisions. Reflective of the research strength within the Business School within responsible business, you will be encouraged to engage with CSR and ethical decision making.

This module provides the knowledge and skills necessary for you to understand, critically analyse, and manage Strategic Marketing functions within fast-moving, international and competitive contexts.

Within the module, you will cover these main topics:
1) The role and process of Marketing: a strategic perspective;
2) The Marketing environment;
3) Brand Management & Marketing Communications;
4) Channel Management, Sales Management and Key Account Management;
5) Relationship Marketing: Customer Relationship Management and Internal Marketing;
6) Online and Digital Marketing;
7) Marketing Analytics;
8) Marketing Metrics.

During the module you will fine-tune your existing Strategic Marketing skills and gain a robust understanding of its board level management. You will critically analyse existing theory and practices, contribute your own ideas, and explore ways to apply this academic knowledge to an authentic commercial context.

You will gain an understanding of the role data analytics can play in decision making for senior managers, and acquire a skill set which will enable you to both carry out and evaluate results from such analysis.

There is an increasing need for business leaders to know how to use data to develop meaningful and robust business solutions. This module will equip you with the practical knowledge and confidence to achieve this. Specific topics covered will vary but are likely to include content such as Project Management; Data Management for Decision Making (using specialist software packages such as SAS); Statistics for Business and Predictive Modelling.

The module will address, explore and examine various themes and issues affecting the changing global business environment. The main objective of the module is to discuss and assess the global business environment, investigating how globalisation/localisation phenomena that are likely to impact upon business operations and strategy within the context of regional economic development. An approximate (not exhaustive) list of possible topics included in the module is provided below:
• Globalisation: Definition, Evolution, Implications for countries, companies and communities,
• Regions and Regionalisms within a Globalised World: implication for economies and societies
• From Post-Industrial to Knowledge Economies
• International Capital and Financial Markets: Mergers and Acquisitions
• World Institutions: World Trade Organisation, International Monetary Fund, United Nations
• Macro-Commercial Blocs: The European Union, NAFTA, ASEAN and BRICS
• The International Economic Environment: Exchange Rates and patterns of trade
• Business and Environmental Issues: Kyoto and Paris Agreements
• Business and Corporate Culture in Different Countries

The module aims to provide you with the theories and principles of operations and supply chain management and the knowledge and skills of applying them in real business practices. This module has been developed in partnership with practitioners in the field and will explore core
topics including:
? Introduction to Operations and Supply Chain Management;
? Supply Chain Strategy;
? Supply Chain Operations;
? Planning Supply Chain Operations;
? Sourcing Supply Chain Operations;
? Making Supply Chain Operations;
? Delivering;
? Supply Chain Risk Management;
? Product Lifecycle Management;
? Quality Management;
? Reverse Logistics;
? Recent Challenges in Supply Chain.

The module will lead you to the development of operations management and supply chain management skills and confidence in handling complex problems in supply chain. In doing so, it will expose you to a wide range of tools and techniques in analysing supply chain problems. You will be knowledgeable about the theory and practice of operations and supply chain management and skilful in the use of various tools and techniques. On completing the module you will be able to apply the theories and principles to analyse operations and supply chain problems in a variety of situations. You will be capable of identifying the root causes of various supply chain problems and proposing relevant solutions.

There is currently no summary for this module.

This module will help you understand, anticipate, pre-empt and respond to ethical challenges in business. The module requires you to think about your own responsibility as a manager and the responsibilities of organizations in the context of contemporary challenges to business. You will be challenged by this module to think about the qualities of mind and character that are required to behave in a morally coherent way, about the types of institutional arrangements that promote and frustrate this. The module will enable you to think about ethical issues at the level of the individual, the institution and the wider material and ideational contexts that inform how such issues are understood.