Foundation Degree in Business P/T

About this course

The course is made up of 16 modules, spread across 2½ academic years.   You will study 6 modules per year and four modules in the final session.  Each year is divided up into two semesters but you will be required to attend one day per week in June and July to complete 2 modules:

You will study:

Marketing 1
Marketing 1 offers an introduction to the concepts and principles of marketing with particular emphasis on how they need to be tailored to the specific needs of business organisations. You will investigate and apply a range of marketing theories and practices suitable for business. Topics include: marketing orientation; marketing planning; segmentation and the marketing mix.

Investigative Techniques
Investigative Techniques provides you with a framework to acquire the skills needed to carry out the work-based projects that you will be doing. The module encourages you to present work for assessment which adheres both to standard academic norms and addresses the needs of your organisation.  The module equips you with a range of critical and analytical research skills which are useful in both an academic and work context.  The focus is also upon the application of investigative techniques to the work-related project carried out in the second part of the second year (see below).   You will be encouraged to reflect on the application of your research strategy and draw conclusions, useful for your management career through the “lived experience” of this major project.

Managing Financial Resources
In this module you will be introduced to key concepts of finance and accounting.  By acquiring these concepts, you will gain the financial knowledge needed by operational managers at work in business organisations. To this end, this module focuses on four main areas: sources of finance; financial planning; financial decision-making; and analysis of financial performance.

Personal Effectiveness & Professional Development
You will be given the opportunity to develop a capacity for self-evaluation, critical reflection and self-development. You apply a range of tools and techniques contained in the module and so develop your skills and self-awareness.  Subsequently you will have the opportunity to record your self-development and prepare your Personal Development Plan – you will need this as you begin your career as a manager in your business organisation.

The Business Environment
This module introduces you to the elements of the business environment which impact on business organisations. The module equips you with the knowledge required by managers to understand the economy and the private sector in which your organisation operates. You will therefore be asked to investigate the interaction of organisations and the environment, both national and European and their impact on the business sector.

Organisations and Behaviour
This module will provide you with an understanding of the behaviour of people within organisations and to help you to appreciate the significance of organisational design and characteristics.

The ‘Pathway’ Modules: (Business; Accounting; Human Resources; Marketing)
You choose your pathway (Business; Accounting; Human Resources; Marketing) at the beginning of Year One and you follow the module throughout the whole of the first year.  The module equips you with up-to-date detailed knowledge about what is going on in your chosen sector and encourages you to share your experience and your knowledge with fellow students.

Business Law
This module will give you an understanding of how law impacts on business activities. You will be able to apply legal principles and understand when specialist legal advice needs to be sought.

Managing Information
In this module you are asked to identify the informational and decision making needs of managers that can be supported by IT. Secondly you will explore the increasingly important role IT plays in managing the flow of organisational information. You will also investigate the new technologies that are rapidly altering the way information is conveyed and used in business and what pressures exist for organisations to embrace these changes. Additionally you will evaluate the increasing use of e-commerce in your chosen sector.

Managing People
Managing People offers a wide range of topic areas related to the use of human resources within the work situation including structures and cultures, Human Resource Planning, recruitment and selection, performance management.  You will apply your learning through studying Human Resource issues and practices within workplace settings (usually your own) and you will be encouraged to evaluate alternative approaches to managing people.

Employment Law
Here you will develop an understanding of how employment law impacts on organisations. In addition, you will be able to apply legal principles to the solution of commonly encountered employment law problems.

Leadership, Direction and Change
The focus of this module is on the main theories of leadership, the role of leaders and in particular, their role in facilitating organisational change.

Work-based Project (Double Module)
This double module provides you with a vehicle to express much of the learning on the programme as a whole. In this module you address a work-based issue in a systematic way. You draw on a variety of primary and secondary sources; produce an analytical and evaluative research project of use to the ‘client’ organisation in your sector; and finally encourage the organisation to adopt your findings and recommendations. In this way, the module asks you to draw on the cumulative learning acquired from all the modules you have studied as well as your own prior learning and integrate all this into an analytical framework which underpins the research.  The module will therefore develop your competence in framing and writing-up the results of your investigation and enhance your personal learning and self-awareness as a manager undertaking an important project at work.  This module is the focus of the final semester of the programme.

Entry requirements

Assessment

What next?

For further information please contact:

Course Enquiry Line
01905 743456
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Robert Hickman
01905 743469
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Louise Newell
Directorate Administration Officer
01905 743463

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For help applying call 01905 743456