Admission Criteria

Candidates must be able to satisfy the general admission requirements of the University of the West of Scotland as specified in Chapter 2 of the University Regulatory Framework together with the following programme requirements:

SQA National Qualifications

Year 1 Entry : equivalent of 88 UCAS credits.

or GCE

or SQA National Qualifications/Edexcel Foundation

Other Required Qualifications/Experience

Applicants may also be considered with other academic, vocational or professional qualifications deemed to be equivalent.

Applicants must be in employment for the duration of the programme and have full supoort from their employer.

Further desirable skills pre-application

General Overview

General Description of the Programme

The Graduate Apprenticeship BA (Hons) Business Management offers an opportunity to study towards a business degree which has been developed to ensure its aims are aligned with the needs of the labour market in the UK, Europe and the wider international business community. 

The Graduate Apprenticeship BA (Hons) in Business Management helps develop the range and depth of knowledge and skills that are a prerequisite of Business Graduates entering employment in small, medium and large sized organisations.

The full-time, work-based Programme lasts 4 years (with a number of early exit points including 3 years for the Ordinary degree).

The degree of Graduate Apprenticeship BA (Hons) Business Management develops critical awareness of the world of business and facilitates, through the acquisition of generic and specialist transferable skills, capacity and capability building for the individual and the host firm.

The Graduate Apprenticeship BA (Hons) Business Management programme uses a range of teaching, learning and assessment methods which ensure the learning outcomes are achieved.

Apprentices are encouraged to become reflective learners and efforts are made to assist in recognising and developing transferable skills and personal capabilities alongside academic knowledge.

The overall assessment strategy ensures that a coherent balance of assessment is in place and that assessment supports employability and other complex learning intentions.

The GA programme is delivered through our pioneering Accelerated and Immersive Educational (AIE) approach. The AIE is a practical and digital approach designed to meet the changes and challenges faced by Higher Education currently and in the future. It utilises a cloud based platform to provide a teaching and learning environment that hosts and advances an accelerated, interactive and engaging M-learning approach that can be accessed via smart technologies. As such AIE is designed and speaks directly to the dynamism, mobility and immediacy of how we now live, work and learn.  Therefore, the AIE approach digitally and physically transforms the teaching and learning practice of educators and employers, providing an engaging, personalised and immersive educational experience for learners.

Given the AIE approach to delivery, teaching and learning, the Apprentice’s educational experience will be, predominately, delivered through the integrated use of digital, social and transformational technologies. Therefore, the Apprentice will have the opportunity to constantly and immediately engage with staff and fellow students, education, tasks and discussions will be completed outside traditional or formal contact. This is a central aspect and benefit of the GA programme as it allows the Apprentice to learn and engage with tasks in a personalised manner and will develop understanding in a convergent manner with feedback and interactions from staff, fellow students and their networks.

Aims and Objectives

1. Acquire and demonstrate a critical understanding of the foundations, theoretical concepts and principles of practice that relate to the creation, growth and management of modern business and enterprise 
2. Enable the students to develop a core skill sets that will provide the support to critically evaluate and practically respond to the challenges of the contemporary world of business and enterprise
3. Develop and demonstrate a critical understanding of theory, practical knowledge and applied business practice in a digitally accelerating age 
4. Understand and engage with the business and operations activities of the student's host organisation and contribute effectively to its development.

During First Year, Apprentices will begin to recognise and develop learning skills and personal capabilities alongside a general understanding of the Business Management environment.

In Second Year, building on the initial introduction to Business, Apprentices will enhance their knowledge of related and more specialised areas of Business and continue to build on and reflect upon their employability skills.

In Third Year, theoretical knowledge will continue to be built upon, with further study in areas of Business and Apprentices will be encouraged to become more independent learners, accepting more responsibility for identifying their own development needs.

This is strengthened at Honours level and is complemented by the Apprentice undertaking a Business based Work Based Learning Project.

By the end of the programme the Apprentice will have acquired a high level of competence in digital application and any relevant software.  All modules coursework submissions will be submitted electronically.

On completion of the degree, the Apprentice may choose to study at Post-Graduate or Masters Level at the facilitating or other Higher Education Institution. This may be either on a full time or part time, post experience basis (e.g. MBA). It is possible to pursue Professional Institute qualifications in a chosen specialist area of study (e.g. Chartered Management Institute).

Graduate Attributes, Employability & Personal Development Planning

Across the programme of study, the Personal Development Planning (PDP) process gives the opportunity for engagement of students with a set of core activities, which include:

• reflection on prior experience, personal attributes and goals;
• audits of skills and feedback on their development;
• opportunities and guidance on the recording of achievements;
• the identification/development of learning goals;
• opportunities to reflect on this material and to gain feedback;
• opportunities (and guidance) on presentation of evidence for different audiences and planning of future
• learning and career development (such as CVs);
• maintaining an effective PDP record.

PDP in the programme

The timetabled PDP sessions will be associated with the work based learning modules. PDP will be aligned with the apprentices workplace requirements and clearly identified in their Individual Learning Plan (ILP) as agreed by their academic and industrial mentor. 

As a graduate from UWS you will be:

• Universal - globally relevant with comprehensively applicable abilities, skills and behaviours
• Work ready - dynamic and prepared for employment in complex, ever-changing environments which require lifelong learning and resilience
• Successful - as a UWS graduate with a solid foundation on which to continue succeeding and realising your potential, across various contexts

Through studying and graduating from UWS, you will develop attributes across three dimensions:

• Academic – knowledge, skills and abilities related to high-level academic study
• Personal – qualities and characteristics of well-rounded, developed, responsible individuals
• Professional – skills, aptitudes and attitudes required for professional working life in the 21st Century

The employability skills and attributes which Students will gain experience in developing, applying and reflecting upon during the workplace learning will be those identified by The Council For Industry and Higher Education (CIHE) (2008) as the key competencies which employers value.

Work Based Learning/Placement Details

One of the most important aspects of the Graduate Apprenticeship (GA) programme is the mode of learning being Work-Based. GA combines academic learning with real-time practical experience in the workplace, the GA programme will deliver industry-relevant skills and qualifications. GAs are developed in partnership with employers to ensure that the learning is relevant to industry and that you as apprentices can apply your learning in the workplace immediately and could contribute towards career progression within their organisation.

There are 4 Work Based Learning Modules (WBL) at L 7, 8, 9 and 10 respectively. The WBL modules ensure that the content being delivered is contextualised in the workplace in order to maximise the impact of learning for the benefit of both the company and the student. Moreover, students will be encouraged to think about their learning in the context of the workplace throughout the programme. An Individual Learning Plan (ILP) which supports the PDP (Personal Development Plan) of the apprentice's role within their organisation will be agreed at the outset of the programme between the programme leader/academic mentor, industry mentor, and GA project manager.

A significant part of the programme is delivered through WBL-mode where the learning is dictated by the work activities of the Apprentice. The programme is delivered using the AIM approach (detailed above) which enables mobile, immediate and interactive engagement via personal smart technologies.

Engagement and Attendance

In line with the Academic Engagement and Attendance Procedure, Students are defined as academically engaged if they are regularly engaged with timetabled teaching sessions, course-related learning resources including those in the Library and on Moodle, and complete assessments and submit these on time.

For the purposes of this programme, this equates to the following:

Engagement with materials and discussions on the learning platform. Students will also be required to keep in regular contract with their appointed Link Tutor

Equality and Diversity

The University's Equality, Diversity and Human Rights Procedure can be accessed at the following link: UWS Equality and Diversity Policy

Knowledge and Understanding

Practice - Applied Knowledge and Understanding

Communication, ICT and Numeracy Skills

Generic Cognitive Skills - Problem Solving, Analysis, Evaluation

Autonomy, Accountability and Working With Others

Knowledge and Understanding

Practice - Applied Knowledge and Understanding

Communication, ICT and Numeracy Skills

Generic Cognitive Skills - Problem Solving, Analysis, Evaluation

Autonomy, Accountability and Working With Others

Knowledge and Understanding

Practice - Applied Knowledge and Understanding

Communication, ICT and Numeracy Skills

Generic Cognitive Skills - Problem Solving, Analysis, Evaluation

Autonomy, Accountability and Working With Others

Knowledge and Understanding

Practice - Applied Knowledge and Understanding

Communication, ICT and Numeracy Skills

Generic Cognitive Skills - Problem Solving, Analysis, Evaluation

Autonomy, Accountability and Working With Others

Regulations of Assessment

Candidates will be bound by the general assessment regulations of the University as specified in the University Regulatory Framework .

An overview of the assessment details is provided in the Student Handbook and the assessment criteria for each module is provided in the module descriptor which forms part of the module pack issued to students. For further details on assessment please refer to Chapter 3 of the Regulatory Framework.

To qualify for an award of the University, students must complete all the programme requirements and must meet the credit minima detailed in Chapter 1 of the Regulatory Framework.

Combined Studies

There may be instances where a student has been unsuccessful in meeting the award criteria for the named award and for other more generic named awards existing within the School. Provided that they have met the credit requirements in line with the SCQF credit minima (please see Regulation 1.21), they will be eligible for an exit award of CertHE / DipHE or BA / BSc in Combined Studies.

For students studying BA, BAcc, or BD awards the award will be BA Combined Studies.

For students studying BEng or BSc awards, the award will be BSc Combined Studies.