Diploma in Management Studies (DMS)

The BTEC Advanced Professional Diploma in Management Studies Level 7 (DMS) extends and deepens the specialist focus available in the six-unit Certificate. This qualification has three core units supported by six specialist units chosen from a wide range of available specialist units.

These qualifications offer an engaging programme for higher education and adult learners who are clear about the area of employment they wish to enter or to which they wish to progress within existing employment. It also provides a suitable qualification for those wishing to change career or move into employment in management following a career break. Access to suitable management work situations is fundamental to successful completion of this qualification, either through permanent full- or part-time employment or through a collaborative work placement.

Start Dates: Jan, April, July and Oct

Unit 1: Advanced Professional Development
Learning hours: 30
NQF Level 7

Description of unit
This unit is designed to enable learners to take responsibility for their learning and development needs to meet personal, professional and organisational goals and objectives. This will be achieved through analysing current skills and preparing and implementing personal development plans. This unit highlights the importance of seeking feedback from others to improve performance continuously reviewing learning needs as these skills will equip the learner for future demanding responsibilities and career progression.

Evidence provided to achieve this unit will be continuous throughout the qualification, thereby enabling learners to take ownership of their future development needs. Learners will be able to demonstrate they have a regularly updated and realistic personal development plan which fits with their preferred learning style. This unit will also enable learners to evaluate the
effectiveness and impact of their learning on their chosen career path.

Unit 2: Managing Change in Organisations
Learning hours: 30
NQF Level 7

Description of unit
Alvin Toffler's famous comment 'There is only one constant today and that is change' was made some decades ago, but now change itself is changing at a fast rate. With such change comes uncertainty and insecurity. No longer can organisations, even in the public sector, where 'steady state' was ever the watchword, sit back. All are being increasingly challenged by change. As a result, organisations can either progress or perish.

This unit will look at the reasons for change and alternative models for its management. It will not look at change at local operational level. Rather it will focus on the need to implement processes and systems for ongoing, continuous structural and cultural change in organisations, through such methods as organisational development, business process re-engineering and the learning organisation model. In effect, it will ask learners to look to developing organizational models that challenge the bureaucracy of the past age.

Therefore, this unit will help learners come to realise that the ongoing management of change is really today the crucial role of any manager and requires a more open and participate approach. This, in turn, requires more than the traditional hierarchical skills of the old bureaucratic or mechanistic models of organisations.

*This unit is a core unit for only the Certificate and Diploma.

Unit 3: Management Research - Project and Presentation
Learning hours: 30
NQF Level 7

Description of unit
The purpose of this unit is to provide learners with an opportunity to integrate all the learning from the whole programme.

This unit, together with Unit 10: Management Research Methods, recognises the importance of effective project management in today's economy. The fact that there are two units on the subject recognises the scale of work that is required to develop and implement a sound project. Learners can take either unit without the other, but may find it necessary to start with Unit 10 before tackling this unit if they have no experience of research methodology.

As the rate of change escalates, it is important for organisations to not just hold their place in the market but to plan to move ahead. This unit recognises the importance for managers to have project management skills and expertise to enable this to happen. In effect, this unit requires managers to plan the implementation of a new product, service or process. Learners
need to take a full and active role in all aspects of the development of the project and the selection of an appropriate management issue is crucial to success. The learners cover a full range of management activities and roles including resource and people management and implementation of change. The result needs to be a substantial report of a style appropriate for the consideration of senior management.

This unit is only a core unit for the Diploma.

Unit 6: Human Resources Planning and Development
Learning hours: 30
NQF Level 7

Description of unit
This unit will enable learners to focus on the knowledge, understanding and skills necessary for the planning and development of an organisation's human resources (HR). Learners will research the role of the HR function, analyse HR planning and development methods and how they contribute to organisational objectives and requirements, and analyse performance
enhancements.

Unit 7: Management in the Wider Environment
Learning hours: 30
NQF Level 7

Description of unit
The increase in information and communication technology, the consequent globalisation of markets and competition and the need to respect today's more diverse society means that organisations have to ensure they are more aware of the wider environment. Managers need to be much more concerned with the cultural, moral, ethical, spiritual and environmental effects of their activities, to ensure that these do not cause conflict within their sphere of operations. In addition, managers need to be aware of current and developing national and European legislation.

The need for corporate social responsibility or governance lies at the heart of this unit. Its objective is to encourage managers to look beyond organisational success and progress, and to realise the importance of respecting and taking responsibility for societal values in general. It looks at this through a number of spheres - global, international and European, legal, environmental, social, cultural, ethnic and moral, including the need to enhance the welfare of the workforce generally.

This unit is, designed to help managers realise the implications of 'wider curriculum'. The unit will also help them to respond to the increasing expectation of society that all decisions, policies, processes and activities undertaken by organisations take into account standards beyond business success.

Unit 14: Managing Finance for Strategic Managers
Learning hours: 30
NQF Level 7

Description of unit
This unit is the second of two that provide learners with a foundation in financial principles and techniques relevant to the strategic management process. To enable learners to use appropriate decision-making skills in their own organisations, this unit it encourages them to explore the nature of cost-based financial data and information, the impact of the budgeting
process upon the organisation, and the development of cost reduction and management procedures and processes.

To complete this unit effectively, learners will need to show an ability to create and prepare strategies to influence others, make decisions that are based on well-researched options, monitor quality of performance against organisational objectives and decide on the validity of information sources used in the decision-making process.

Learners will study issues of cost, responsibility and control in the contexts of management accounting and the management process. This unit offers learners the opportunity to enhance their competency in the construction, review and evaluation of cost-based financial information, and introduces them to the analysis, control or reduction of costs in a range of
situations.

Unit 16: Managing Human Resources Policy
Learning hours: 30
NQF Level 7

Description of unit
This unit is designed to enable learners to critically examine human resources (HR) policies in their own organisations and compare them with other organisations to identify good practice.

Learners will have the opportunity to research relevant legislation and make appropriate recommendations on how to improve policy in their own work environments.
The structure and culture of an organisation contribute to the approach adopted by the
organisation and learners will be able to evaluate how this affects HR.

To ensure that business objectives are achieved and to see where improvements are needed, the overall effectiveness of the HR function at both strategic and support level should be evaluated and monitored. Learners will examine approaches of
performance measurement to evaluate HR effectiveness.

Unit 17: Strategic Marketing Management
Learning hours: 30
NQF Level 7

Description of unit
This unit introduces marketing strategy to learners who are not professional marketers but would like to understand how to support the strategic marketing process.

This unit introduces learners to the principles of marketing strategies. It develops learners' knowledge and understanding of the formulation of a marketing plan, allows them to investigate the current marketing environment and helps them to consider how all managers in an organisation can contribute towards the achievement of marketing objectives. Learners will learn about the theoretical concepts associated with a marketing strategy and the marketing planning process and its application to different market situations.

The unit combines theory and practice. Learners will demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of marketing strategy concepts, tools and techniques and then apply the
knowledge to specific situations.


Unit 18: Developing a Communication Strategy
Learning hours: 30
NQF Level 7

Description of unit
Communication is crucial to organisational effectiveness as the basis for maintaining pace and of ensuring that change can happen at all levels of the organisation. It is through the management of sound and co-ordinated systems of communication that an organisation can integrate its various parts to ensure workforce harmonisation to achieve awareness and performance.

Organisations today need to plan their communication systems to ensure up-to-date information, knowledge and awareness are always available to all who need them.
This unit gives learners an opportunity to look to the design of a communication system within one organisation, eg their own workplace, one to which they are seconded or through a case study. This is a developing area of interest and to an extent creates 'the infrastructure.