Program Overview

MA Business Management: Financial Services (Graduate Apprenticeship)

The Business Management: Financial Services graduate apprenticeship is aimed at employment in the financial services sector. This programme is open to new or existing employees in Scotland of all ages and consists of 20% academic learning and 80% work-based learning.

Key Information

• Level: Undergraduate
• Delivery type: Full Time
• Degree qualification: MA
• Mode of delivery: Online
• Duration: 3-4 years
• Location: Edinburgh
• Start date: September

This is a SCQF level 10 programme with a September start only.

Programme Structure

The programme is structured to provide essential foundational knowledge in the early stages, which can be built on during the learning that takes place in the workplace. It comprises a number of courses undertaken through a blend of University attendance and work-based learning. Attendance at University will normally be one day per week. Each course has specific learning objectives, and the learning and work-based project work associated with each course is tailored to meet each student's individual work context.

In the third semester of each year, students will work on assessments and projects supervised by a tutor from the University, course instructors, and work-based mentors.

Graduates' Skillset

The Business Management: Financial Services graduate apprenticeship is designed to produce graduates with high-level skills and knowledge attributes, including:

• Organisational strategy
• Project management
• Business finance
• Digital business and new technologies
• Communication
• Leading people
• Managing people
• Developing collaborative relationships
• Awareness of self and others
• Management of self
• Decision making
• Regulatory requirements
• The financial services sector
• Technological change and its application
• Client management

Key Areas of the Programme

The primary focus of the Business Management: Financial Services graduate apprenticeship programme is on developing the knowledge, understanding, and skills outcomes sought by employers. Key areas include:

• Organisational performance
  • Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of organisational strategy
  • Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of project management
  • Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of business finance
  • Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of digital business and new technologies
• Interpersonal excellence
  • Demonstrate effective communication skills
  • Demonstrate the ability to effectively lead people
  • Demonstrate the ability to effectively manage people
  • Demonstrate the ability to develop collaborative relationships
• Personal effectiveness
  • Demonstrate an awareness of self and others
  • Demonstrate effective management of self
  • Demonstrate effective decision making skills
• Behaviours
  • Demonstrate behaviour that shows the ability to take responsibility
  • Demonstrate behaviour that shows the ability to be inclusive
  • Demonstrate behaviour that shows the ability to be agile
  • Demonstrate behaviour that shows professionalism
• Financial services
  • Demonstrate knowledge of regulatory requirements
  • Demonstrate knowledge of the financial services sector
  • Demonstrate knowledge of technological change and its application
  • Demonstrate knowledge of client management
• Optional
  • Demonstrate specialist knowledge of products and services within the chosen sector, including retail banking, commercial/business banking, investment banking, investment management, operations, insurance, workplace pensions, client segmentation, and market segmentation.

Course Content

September Intake - Edinburgh

The programme is structured over four years, with each year building on the knowledge and skills gained in the previous one.

Year 1

• Foundations of management, including finance and economics
• Knowledge of different management and business functions
• The enterprise in the context of its environment
• Business skills such as questioning and interviewing techniques, presentation skills, and design thinking
• Mandatory courses:
  • Management in a Global Context
  • Introductory Economics (GA)
  • Introduction to Finance
  • Enterprise and its Business Environment
  • Information Systems for Business
  • Business Skills
  • Management Project 1

Year 2

• Human behaviour in the workplace
• Basic accounting
• Themes, theories, and concepts of organisational behaviour
• Projects to consider improvements to an operational element within the organisation
• Greater responsibility for personal development
• Understanding of contemporary marketing issues and problems faced by organisations
• Legal principles within the context of public-, private-, and third-sector organisations
• Introduction to the financial services sector
• Mandatory courses:
  • Fundamentals of Marketing (GA)
  • The Financial Services Sector
  • Organisational Behaviour
  • Commercial Law
  • Operations Management
  • Accounting for Managers
  • Management for Business Professional Development Review 1
  • Contemporary Human Resource Management

Year 3

• Project management
• Theoretical and practical issues involved in the strategic management of organisations
• Business analysis and consultancy project
• Financial regulation, including domestic and global regulatory structures
• Appreciation for current trends in fintech, blockchain, and digital instruments and currencies
• Mandatory courses:
  • Strategic Management
  • Financial Regulation
  • Project Management
  • Introduction to Business Research Methods
  • Financial Technology
  • Management for Business Professional Development Review 2
  • Business Consultancy Project

Year 4

• Full responsibility for a major work-based Capstone Project
• Impact of global political, economic, social, and technological trends on managing organisations
• Operational excellence, quality management
• Methods, tools, and techniques for measuring and managing performance
• Digital marketing
• Mandatory courses:
  • Global Business Analysis
  • Managing Business Performance
  • Management for Business Professional Development Review 3
  • Capstone Project 2
  • Capstone Project 1
  • Data Analysis with Python

Entry Requirements

• Year 1:
  • SQA Highers at BBBB (over two sittings)
  • A-Levels at BBC
  • Int. Baccalaureate 29 points
  • SQA HNC in a relevant subject (or a suitable Modern Apprenticeship) with B in the graded unit
  • Foundation Apprenticeship in Business Skills in conjunction with other suitable qualifications
• Year 2:
  • SQA Advanced Highers at BB in relevant subjects plus SQA Highers at BBBB
  • A-Levels at ABB in relevant subjects
  • Int. Baccalaureate 34 points
  • SQA HND Business (or a suitable Modern Apprenticeship) with A or BB in the graded unit