Foundation Degree (FdA)
Leaflet Code: HA0049
Overview
All organisations need people with strong business skills. At the end of your course, you’ll be equipped with the skills they need – a business professional with a global mind-set, confident, able to lead teams, managing operations, develop strategies, aware of key sustainability challenges and making leadership decisions.
You will learn how to spot opportunities, adapt to change, assess impact on stakeholders, and understand when and how to take risks. You’ll gain a broad understanding of the business world, together with fundamental skills like team-working and problem-solving.
Later, you’ll have the opportunity to specialise in areas that interest you most.
In your second year you have the opportunity to specialise with 30 credits worth of units in either Management, Human Resource Management or Marketing. Please see the unit information below.
Awarding Partner:
All tutors are qualified to:-
• BSc / BA / Masters in subject specific and / or Education
• PGCE
• FHEA
• Industry Experience
• We strongly recommend that all applicants have GCSE English Language and Mathematics grades A*-C or level 9-4.
• 64 UCAS points in a related subject area.
Applicants with no formal academic qualifications may be considered for entry. All nonstandard entry applicants will be interviewed by the programme team to assess suitability.
UCEN Manchester is unable to consider international applications due to UKVI regulations.
Accounting and FinTech for Managers (15 credits)
This unit gives students an understanding of finance within organisations, with a specific focus on budgeting, and an introduction to FinTech, the key technologies and business models that will re-imagine the global economy in the 21st century.
Digital Awareness & Professional Development (15 credits)
This unit aims to enable students to recognise their digital and professional strengths and build on them, to manage their digital footprint, to engage with professional bodies, to advance their mental toughness, to reflect, and to become more self-aware and confident. The Unit enables students to meet the significant challenges facing individuals and enhances employability.
Global Concerns in Sustainable Development (15 credits)
This unit introduces students to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals through a focus on case studies and an understanding of the key concepts and the relationship to concerns such as climate change, poverty and sustainable development.
Innovation and Creativity Skills for Business (15 credits)
This unit will facilitate idea generation via a range of creative thinking tools. Case studies will be utilised to explore models of innovation. Students will plan and manage a project in groups, demonstrating divergent and convergent thinking, to develop a business concept for a specified target market
Introduction to Human Resource Management (15 credits)
This unit reviews the evolution of HRM and introduces students to the key underpinning HRM theories. It explores the employee life cycle including recruitment and selection, development, reward and recognition, performance management, wellbeing, engagement, diversity and inclusion, conflict and departures. The unit highlights various influences both internal and external to the organisation, which shape HR policies and practices, such as labour markets, CSR, political environment and the legal framework and their implications on workforce planning.
Introduction to Technology and Big Data (15 credits)
The rapid growth in digital technologies and the associated use in smart devices, sensors and internet applications has resulted in a proliferation of big data. This emergent trend has not gone unnoticed by business and other organisations, which consistently aim to utilise digital technologies to their advantage. The unit will introduce the digital technologies and consider the methods and applications that are used to analyse and translate such data into meaningful, actionable information, which could inform current as well as future business models.
Managing People in a Contemporary Economy (15 credits)
The aim of this unit is to provide students with an understanding of the wider world of work. It introduces students to tools for analysing the external environment (e.g. PESTLE, SWOT etc.). It examines features of the contemporary economy such as labour markets, changes in workforce demographics, changing composition of the economy (rise in service and knowledge work, decline of manufacturing) and the global economy
Understanding the Customer Experience (15 credits)
This unit gives students an understanding of the principles of the customer experience. It will introduce students to the customer journey in organisational contexts, the management of the customer experience, the role of technology, and the monitoring and measurement for improvement in the customer experience
Level 4
90% Assignment
10% Examination
Level 5
85% Assignment
15% Examination
All of the books required for the course are available from the library. However, many students choose to buy some of the core textbooks for the course and/or a laptop. You may also need to print your assignments and other documents.
Campus printing costs start from 5p per page.
Estimated costs are £300 for a laptop up to £100 each year for books and printing.
All students are subject to UCEN Manchester’s Terms and Conditions from the date they accept an offer to study here. The UCEN Manchester Admissions Policy and Procedure can be found here.