Business Management Practice (Chartered Manager Degree Apprenticeship)

About your course

The BA (Hons) Business and Management Practice Chartered Manager Degree Apprenticeship at Liverpool John Moores University has been designed in conjunction with the Chartered Management Institute (CMI), to meet employer demands for business-ready graduates and provides a valuable route for upskilling experienced managers already in the workplace.

The CMDA is part of a wider Government initiative to support and enable the development of skills in the workplace through apprenticeships. At the Liverpool Business School we see manager and leader development as a lynchpin for the wider development of skills and talent needed to deliver improved performance in organisations. 

While the apprenticeship initiative has the potential to act as a springboard for skills development, crucially it is managers and leaders who need to identify and develop talent, and it is managers that can help organisations make the most of their emerging talent. How skills are brought together in an organisation matters, and managers play a pivotal role in making this happen.

-The aim of the CMDA is to prepare people for management roles and to develop those already in such roles to help them be more effective in the workplace. The programme focuses on the following four key themes, each representing a year of part-time study, culminating in an in-company project, providing a marriage of learning development with practice:

• Self-development and performance through others: good management development begins with the individual, their needs and how best to help the person develop as a manager and leader within their organisational context. However, to be effective as a manager, others with whom they work need to perform effectively. This programme begins where it is possible to make an impact quickly: with the individual learner's performance and with whom they work
• Organisational effectiveness: organising to deliver value for customers combines business finances to inform management decision making and the management of key processes and projects. Good management is about delivering value for customers, and that means understanding how to get the best out of the core operations in the organisation.
• Seeing the bigger picture: connecting customers to strategy and the leadership to energise and bring strategy to life. Such leadership creates advantage and brings together the outwards focus of customer and markets with the strengths and capabilities of the organisation
• Innovation, change and sustainability: This final theme opens up the broader manager roles of continually improving and innovating, with being a good corporate citizen, enhancing the wider society of which they are a part, in ways that contribute to the long-term purpose of the organisation.

Teaching and work-related learning

Excellent facilities and learning resources

We adopt an active blended learning approach, meaning you will experience a combination of face-to-face and online learning during your time at LJMU. This enables you to experience a rich and diverse learning experience and engage fully with your studies. Our approach ensures that you can easily access support from your personal tutor, either by meeting them on-campus or via a video call to suit your needs.

The delivery model for the CMDA is a block release format.  Encompassing on average 5 days of taught delivery, three times a semester.

To support their development, learners will also be assigned a dedicated mentor from a pool of specialist coaches within the School of Leadership and Personal Development.  Twice a year, mentors will visit learners in their workplace to meet with them and their supervisors.  These meetings provide the opportunity to embed and extend learning in the organisational environment and maintain a focus on the degree apprenticeship standards learners are working towards.

Work-related Learning

The CMDA is rooted in workplace, with students spending the majority of their time with the employer and 3-5 days of taught delivery in Liverpool Business School, three times per semester. The programme provides a distinctive degree-level management development qualification, which balances intellectual challenges with business and workplace practice across all areas of management, leadership and career development. The programme adopts effective management development practices to ensure that learning results in improved workplace performance.

Work-based learning techniques will include:

• Recognising the workplace as an important place to learn where students can apply ideas in the workplace, improve their skills through a range of activities and then reflect on their practice
• Technology enhanced learning enables rich interactions to take place and supports the use of innovative learning and development methods
• 'Flipped learning' reverses the conventional process of teaching by providing the content prior to the teaching and learning session using Canvas, LJMU's virtual learning environment - the focus of the workshop becomes about active learning and application of theory to practice
• Coaching and mentoring enables the individual learner to tailor the programme to meet your needs. It also provides the opportunity for the organisation to propose business critical skills and values which can become a part of the development activities
  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 allows a collaborative learning process to develop ideas for action

Support and guidance

Dedicated personal tutor, plus study skills support

​​The CMDA begins with a diagnostic discussion with the employee and the employer, which will enable the individual and organisation's needs to be incorporated into the programme. Employers may want specific competencies and values emphasised, or a focus on particular aspects of the business. This can all be done through personal development planning, tailored assignments, and most importantly through the projects. Each learner will be assigned a personal tutor who will provide academic support and, when necessary, signpost students to the appropriate university support services.

Assessment

​You will be assessed using a variety of methods including: Portfolio; Business Reports; Presentations; Reflective diaries; Personal development reports; Project management plans, and Work-based projects.

The School is based in the Redmonds Building, in the heart of the bustling Mount Pleasant Campus and Liverpool's growing Knowledge Quarter. The building is home to high quality lecture theatres and seminar rooms, social spaces, a café and a roof terrace with far reaching views of the cityscape and welsh hills. It is only a short walk from LJMU's Aldham Robarts Library, which contains all the resources you will require for your studies, and is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.