A complete bespoke Post Graduate Diploma in Management
Roffey Park offers a Post Graduate Diploma in Management as a bespoke qualification programme, giving managers with a minimum of three years experience the benefits of a university accredited diploma. The programme encourages managers to learn in the same way as they work by identifying their own personal learning goals, objectives, targets and measures to achieve their learning.
For individual managers, the diploma offers a premium because, as well as providing tangible recognition for academic development, a qualification represents transferable knowledge and demonstrates a proven capacity to learn. On completion participants will have:
- Built improved networks with other colleagues from the programme
- A clearer understanding of the breadth of the field of management
- Undertaken projects focussing on issues pertinent to themselves and their organisation
- Learned new skills and behaviours, determining when and where to best use them
- Learned to relate theories to workplace practice
- Set clear and achievable learning objectives
- Developed the necessary skills, knowledge and understanding to achieve success
- Managed uncertainty and ambiguity
For organisations, the Post Graduate Diploma provides a consistent level of management development. As well as sharing knowledge, building internal networks and promoting cross-divisional project work, it offers scope for people to put something back into the organisation as the tailored content allows organisations to fully integrate the diploma with their current management and organisational development initiatives.
Self Managed Learning
The Post Graduate Diploma, as with all Roffey Park's qualification programmes, is unique in that it has no predetermined syllabus for participants to follow. Instead they are guided by a framework of Self Managed Learning which allows participants to determine what they want to learn and how they are going to learn it, with others, in the context and framework of their organisation's needs and to the standards required of a particular qualification.
After the initial introductory session, participants begin by forming a Learning Set which is a group of up to six people who will challenge and support each other throughout the programme. A set adviser, usually a member of Roffey Park's tutorial staff, is then allocated to each Learning Set. Once part of a Learning Set participants create their own learning Contract, in line with their development needs, and they meet regularly throughout the programme to assess and evaluate each other's achievements.
Although there are no formal exams, each participant has to compile a portfolio of work which shows evidence that they have met the criteria set out in their Learning Contract. This method of peer assessment is definitely not an easy option as members of the Learning Set are often tougher on themselves than any external examiners. The academic rigour of Roffey Park's Post Graduate Diploma is recognised through validation by the University of Sussex.
Tailored Content
One of the key strengths of the Post Graduate Diploma is the opportunity to tailor the content to focus on business critical issues. If employers have specific areas of interest they would like to cover in modules, such as strategy, customer service or leadership, Roffey Park can plan out and shape the programme so that it meets those business needs. Because the projects are all work-related, each person's knowledge is also shared amongst the whole Learning Set. The Post Graduate Diploma can be a rich resource for a company in terms of knowledge management because it results in a critical mass of focused learning.
The programme is split into three phases:
Phase 1
(6 months) |
Residential Elements
Mapping the field of management
Drawing up Learning Contracts
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Submission of Learning Contract and written paper to Set and external examiner
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Phase 2
(6 months) |
Residential Elements
Agreeing assessment criteria
Set meetings – continuous assessment
Self Study and workplace projects / learning logs
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Submission of 50% of Learning Contract
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Phase 3
(6 months) |
Residential elements
Achievement of remaining 50% of Learning Contract
Self study and workplace projects
Set meetings – continuous assessment
Learning Logs
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Set assessments
Submission of linking document and total Learning Contract materials and set minutes to external examiner
Award of Post Graduate Diploma in Management |
The diploma programme also has a degree of flexibility built in, which can be important if business pressures begin to adversely affect the time input for participants.
Established Qualification Programme
Organisations such as National Grid, Barnardo's and Friends First have chosen to run the Post Graduate Diploma as an in-company programme.
However, Roffey Park stresses that a bespoke qualification is a serious commitment and offers advice to organisations to ensure that the corporate benefits are realised.
Ideal Learning Environment
Companies can choose to host the residential element of the programme at Roffey Park or in a location that is most convenient for the managers taking part. Situated in St Leonard's Forest, an area of outstanding natural beauty in West Sussex, Roffey Park provides a unique environment for participants. Our residential centre is designed and continuously developed to provide a high quality learning environment for managerial and personal development. We know that it is important for individuals to make the most of the time they have away from the workplace and that a comfortable and relaxing environment is a real asset to learning.
