Somerset College

FdA Business Management

Course Description

Lay the foundations for the career of your choice with our Business Management courses. These equip you with a range of flexible and transferable skills, ensuring you are a genuine asset in the workplace.

No organisation operates effectively unless its employees have significant commercial expertise. Our courses equip you with exactly what’s required to make a key contribution to your employer’s success. So whether you want to work as a financier, accountant, marketer, administrator, HR manager, or in any other role, this course provides the perfect opportunity to enhance your skills.

As well as learning about business and management through lectures and seminars, you will work with local employers to gain hands-on experience in the real world of business. This will build your experience, help you to generate fresh knowledge, and give you a ready-made contacts book by the time you graduate.

The course follows a broad structure. The first year covers:

• Elements of Business Finance
• Introduction to the Legal Environment
• The Organisational Environment
• Marketing Practice
• Managing Customer Relations
• The External Environment
• Professional Practice and the Workplace
• The second year covers:
• Managing Business Strategy
• Introduction to Macro-Economics
• Managing Human Resources
• Managing Training and Development
• Financial Planning and Managing Accounting
• Project Management
• Developing Marketing Practice
• Management and the Law - optional unit
• Teaching and Assessment
  
  

For FdA students, 80% of the grade is made up of continuous assessment, including individual and group assignments and projects. The remaining 20% of your mark will be decided by your performance in course tests.

Progression Opportunities

On successful completion of the FdA course, you may be able to progress to one further year of study and 'top-up' to a BA (Hons) Business Administration degree at Somerset College.

Please note there is a deadline for progression applications, and places are subject to availability.

Career Progression

This course can lead in any direction you choose, from marketing to finance, management to HR. Our past students have gained employment in a variety of organisations, as well as setting up their own companies.

The Certificate of Higher Education (CertHE)

This is the first stage of the Foundation degree programme and is a nationally recognised award in its own right.

Entry Requirements

Applicants require a National Diploma in Business (PPP) or similar, or AS/A2-Levels (minimum 120 points including 80 points at A2 Level), or an Advanced New Diploma (120 points minimum) or Access Certificate.

Students also need to have GCSE English Language at a minimum of Grade C.

Mature students who do not meet these formal entry requirements are welcome to apply if they can evidence their interest in the field of study.