PgDip Business Administration (Senior Leaders Apprenticeship)

Fees and funding

Employability

Further your career prospects

LJMU has an excellent employability record with 96% (HESA 2018) of our postgraduates in work or further study six months after graduation. Our applied learning techniques and strong industry connections ensure our students are fully prepared for the workplace on graduation and understand how to apply their knowledge in a real world context.

You will see a marked improvement on your day-to-day performance, confidence and learning in the workplace, as well as improvements in your ability to demonstrate new skills learnt during the course of your studies. By combining experience with new management thinking developed over the lifetime of your apprenticeship, you will see improvements in decision-making, contributions to idea generation and strategic business thinking.

It is expected that Senior Leader Apprentices will use the confidence and skills they have developed on the programme to achieve their aspirations and move more quickly up the career ladder within their organisations.

Another benefit of studying with Liverpool Business School is joining a network of senior professionals. This enables you to continue building meaningful, long-term relationships beyond the classroom, as part of the Liverpool Leadership Network.

Teaching

An insight into teaching on your course

Study hours

The course is taught in a block of three days each month over two semesters, which amounts to approximately 18 full days classroom-based teaching per year. The philosophy of teaching is 'flipped learning' which means apprentices have to commit to background reading and engaging with variety of online resources, so they can attend classes fully prepared to participate in case-study discussions and other learning activities.

You also have to devote time to the additional 'Off the Job Training' requirements of your apprenticeship, which includes developing the evidence needed for your portfolio and working with your mentors.

Teaching methods

At the centre of our philosophy is the notion that we learn best from experience and applying our learning, so action learning and coaching are a key part of our programmes. This approach also encourages strong peer learning groups where you can learn from your peers, in recognition of the fact that management and leadership development is a social and collaborative process.

Applied learning

We work closely with participants to support their work on real-world projects and gathering evidence for the portfolio. This includes using assignments, work-based project examples and witness testimony to demonstrate the participant’s strategic development journey. A strong emphasis is placed on the workplace as a place to learn; participants integrate key concepts and theories, assessing the impact of these on their own working environment.

The ability to analyse organisational issues and apply recommendations supported by a theoretical framework is fundamental and is assessed in all elements of the programme.

Action learning

This will be adopted as a supportive and collaborative approach to learning to manage. Action learning will be used to support personal development, where issues and challenges from the workplace can be discussed. This approach to management learning provides a forum to bring ideas, thoughts and issues and allow a collaborative learning process to develop ideas for action.

Work-based assignments

All assignments will relate to the workplace, giving you the opportunity to apply your learning to your organisational context and work towards the level 7 apprenticeship standards.

Should you opt to top-up to the full MBA qualification, the final project dissertation is the opportunity to design an in-company project to ensure that business needs are met. It presents an opportunity for knowledge and skills to be applied to practice by delivering something of value to your organisation.

Masterclasses

Key note speakers address current issues, emerging practice and thought leadership. The intent is to foster the need to be continually updating and engaging with the ways in which management in organisation is changing. 

Assessment

How learning is monitored on your programme

To cater for the wide-ranging content of our courses and the varied learning preferences of our students, we offer a range of assessment methods on each programme.

There are no exams on the academic programme, assessments are by written assignment and / or presentation. Academic assignments on this course are submitted electronically and assessed against the key marking criteria set out for each module.

As a requirement of your apprenticeship, you will attend an End-Point Assessment, which involves an interview and a presentation, in addition to the above. 

Entry requirements

You will need:

Admission to the programme is conditional on the applicant meeting the following:

• you must be in employment with permission and support from your employer to attend classes and engage in 'Off the Job Training' activities
• previous academic qualifications are less important for entry onto the programme, what we are looking for is your ability to contribute and share in the peer-learning activities
• a minimum of 3 years leadership / management experience with the scope to determine strategy within your current role
• GCSE Maths and English (or equivalents) either on entry to the programme or on the understanding they will be completed before the end of the apprenticeship

Where English is not your first language, or your first degree was not taught and assessed wholly in English, an IELTS score of 6.5 must be achieved, with no individual score of less than 6. The programme complies fully with the requirements of the Equality Act 2010.

Application and selection

Securing your place at LJMU

Please upload a CV with your application, detailing your leadership experience and your experience of contributing to strategic development in an organisation.