1MBA Student GuideAdvancing Professional Practice (APP)Placement Professional Practice (PPP)23Advancing Professional Practice (APP) andPlacement Professional Practice (PPP)Student GuideIntroductionThe MBA programmes at the University of Bedfordshire Business School (UBBS)provide you not only with a valuable qualification but a genuine opportunity tochallenge yourself to discover your strengths and talents. As a result you will beequipped to progress confidently to your post-graduation career path, whether thatis further study or employment.This guide is being given to you in welcome week to help you understand how theAdvancing Professional Practice (APP) or Placement Professional Practice (PPP)programme is integrated into your course, how it builds on your welcome weekactivities, how it helps you get the most out of your investment to study at Masterslevel and how it supports you to progress towards your final project units. APP istaken by students on the 12-month MBA including all pathways. PPP is for the 22-month placement only. All students participate in combined APP/PPP sessions 1-4.What is ‘Advancing Professional Practice’?APP/PPP is a structured personal and professional development programme thatsupports you to reflect on your progress between each block of study. It willchallenge you to consider your personal and academic progress and reflect on howyour contact with the world of work in each block of study is shaping your ideasabout yourself and your future career directions.During welcome week you will be introduced to the learning experience in the MBAprogrammes in UBBS; in particular you will be introduced to the guided learningdesign of the course and our expectations of you as learners to come to class readyto engage in debate and discussion. The step-up from Undergraduate to Masterslevel study will also be explained to you. Through the APP/PPP programme youhave an opportunity to reflect on how you’re progressing and whether you areachieving the assessment grades that you are aiming for. You can reassess youremployability skills matrix and identify the sources of evidence for this which youcan then draw on in future interviews with employers.The APP/PPP programme is also when you will meet your next unit coordinator andstudents that you will be studying alongside in the next block. In this session youwill receive your timetable and study guide for the next unit and be introduced to thelearning experience and assessments thereby enabling you to start with confidencein week 1 of each block. Hence, all of the activities in the APP/PPP programmeenable you to identify targeted actions for the next block of study to ensure that youmeet your personal development objectives. A diagrammatic representation of theAPP/PPP programme is on the next page which shows how it fits into the gapbetween each block of study.45Why is ‘Advancing Professional Practice’ part of your course?Employers expect students with a Masters qualification to have developed a higherlevel of autonomy, self-awareness, emotional intelligence and ability to use relevantinformation to identify and plan relevant personal development goals. Indeed this ispart of the benchmarks statements that are used in approving a course to beappropriate for a Masters level qualification.We also want to help you to get the most out of your decision to embark on aMasters course with us. This is why we have designed the Advancing ProfessionalPractice programme to run between each block of study; this is a fairly uniqueapproach to personal development which you will not find in other Masters courses.It is very easy to resolve to do an action linked with personal development; however,if progress checks are not built in along the way, the good intentions can often not befulfilled. Likewise, sometimes we are often not aware of the progress that we aremaking until we make the time to stop and think about it.This is why we have designed APP/PPP to take place every 8 weeks in the gapbetween each block of study. Your mind will be relatively free to focus on yourpersonal achievement goals and to set yourself realistic targets that can be achievedin the next 6-week teaching block.How does the Advancing Professional Practice Programme link with the finalproject units?The ‘Advancing Professional Practice’ programme is designed to prepare you for thelearning experience in the final project units, and placement for students on the 22-month MBA. The MBA seeks to support the interdependence of managementeducation and management practice and the final 60 credits present challengesdemanding independent application of theory in practice to support decision making.The key to success in the final independent research stage is the time you spend inadvance thinking about what interests you, what questions you would like to explore,and different research methods for completing the exploration. We introduce you tothese ideas and concepts during the APP/PPP programme, at a time when you arenot focussing on a unit of study, to ensure that you are already familiar with themwhen you start the final units.APP/PPP is designed to enable you to gain an insight into areas where you mayneed to invest some time enhancing your skills before you start the final unit whichyou can then include in your action plans. As a result of engaging in the‘programme, you will be in a position to write a strong project proposal which is thefirst assessment in the final unit, removing any unnecessary apprehension andallowing students to focus on the research.Why do I need to attend?If you fail to attend you will miss vital information relating to your next unit of studywhich could compromise your performance on the next unit. Likewise, you will missout on vital information and opportunities designed to help you prepare for your final6unit. We know that the best pieces of work in the final unit are produced by studentswho have invested time early to think about what they really want to explore andhave identified a good method for doing so. This is what the APP/PPP programmesupports you to do.Crucially, the APP/PPP programme is all about you; we can provide you with thetools and opportunities to improve; however, your reflections and actions are uniqueto you. Lost opportunities are very hard to recover. Whilst you may still achieveyour MBA you will never know what else you could have achieved if you had chosento fully engage in the embedded personal and professional development programmein your course. The consequence is a ‘lost opportunity’ cost; you will never knowwhat you could have achieved or the impact of this on your future career choices ifyou don’t take full advantage of all the opportunities available to you in your course.The structure of the Advancing Professional Practice ProgrammeThe table on the next page shows you when each session of the APP/PPPprogramme takes place and what is covered in each session. You will see that thepersonal development element is common across all sessions as the commonformat is important for you to identify and evidence your progress. As you movethrough the programme we are expecting you to take more ownership of thepersonal development aspect of the programme; as a result, there will be less timespent on this. You will however have opportunities to discuss any concerns and getadvice about how to access support aligned with an action that you have identified.How will I be informed about Advancing Professional Practice?You will receive information about each APP/PP session in advance from yourcourse coordinator. This will contain the programme for the Advancing ProfessionalPractice session with details of the location and times of delivery. It will also containpreparation material for you to get the most out of the session.7 APP (including PPP) to BeMore Schedule……….Guided LearningCore ActivitiesWelcome Week:APP 1. Be More PreparedElectronic Portfolio of Activities• Good Academic Practice (AIR)• Introduce the idea of critical thinking• Employability Matrix• Action Plan for Academic and Professional DevelopmentAPP 2. Be More ReflectiveStructure of the session1. Employability2. OAAR3. Critical Thinking4. Practical in classReflecting on progress of goals identified in Welcome Week based on experience of the learningenvironment and feedback in the first block. Modify goals and identify key actions fordevelopment in the next block of study. Encourage self-reflection and awareness of others’perceptions in support of professional and academic skill development.Develop critical thinkingLearn how to read between the lines, hear what was not said, see what was not shown, see thingsfrom other’s perspectivesTwo sections:1. Be self-reflective through the Career DNA Bank and start to understand how to identify andevidence what you offer. What do you think this says about you and how the others see thesame story and what they think it says about that person? Making sense of what you read,hear and see, thus linking to the 2nd half: (Group work interactive and fun).2. Academic side of critical thinking what it is and why it is importantAPP 3. Be More DecisiveStructure of the session:1. Brands looking at the purchasingdecision made communication2. Influenced by brand; Influencedby theory3. Questions to ask yourselvesa. Who you areb. How you do itc. Why you are saying / doing it4. Create knowledge; build evidenceExploring how personal branding and values influence decision making. Consideration of the needfor research to support academic and professional decision-making. Students will consider howthe final project might fit with their personal academic and career goals and begin to identify thekey academic skills necessary for success. This will include an exploration of advanced informationseeking skills.What are your career goals, how can you achieve them, how to start looking at research?Two sections:1. Personal Branding: What it is and why it is important. Use everyday brands that all of thembuy and use. Look at the purchasing decisions you have made and how this might relate toyou as a person. You probably did more research than you thought! Others followed thecrowd. Linking market research to your own values you wish to portray and demonstrate theimportance.2. Values of research and the introduction of how you will have to use it for their TIP project(EBMgt) 8 APP 4. Be More Research Focused1. Understanding research to:a. assess and see the gapb. to find the knowledge to fill the gap2. Understand the right questions to aska. Breakdown the OAAR stories fromprevious sessionb. asking the right questions3. Round up ensuring everyone has atopicThe research process both in terms of identifying a good research question and the methods by whichthis may be answered are explored with students assessing their own strengths and weaknesses inrelation to successfully completing a research project or to using research in consulting practice. At theend of this session students will be expected to identify their research topic, and start formulating theirresearch question in preparation for their research in the final unit. They will make a series ofprovisional choices related to their research and reflect on those choices.Being able to identify the right questions to ask? To enable the right research to be done and why thisessential for TIPTwo sections:1. Using what you have done already to understand how to analyse the data to extrapolate thecorrect and useful information, e.g. decipher what abilities competencies were used. Ask the rightquestion in order to find the real value and how this relates to others.2. To demonstrate what is meant by research and how it is needed to be done and what is requiredfor the TIP projectAt this stage you will have participated in all 4 taught units and participation in the APP/PPP sessions 1-4 will have prepared you for the final stages of your course.APP 5. Be More SuccessfulBSS063-6 Management Practice andBSS056-6 Theory into PracticeIntegration of management education and management practice. Planning the research methods andprocess, in the context of the professional ambitions and trajectory of the student. This stage willinclude hands-on training in research techniques.APP6. Be More Readyfor life after graduationStudents will complete this unit by reflecting on how, through their M-level learning experience, they have developed both professionally andacademically, and used the experience of this unit to shape their own engagement with the final M-level unit and future career aspirations.PPP5: Be More SuccessfulBSS066-6 Management Practice(Placement)BSS068-6 MBA Business PlacementDissertationIntegration of management education and management practice. Planning the research methods andprocess, in the context of the professional ambitions and trajectory of the student. This stage willinclude hands-on training in research techniques for your participation in the work placement.PPP6: Be more ready for life aftergraduationReflections on how, through your M-level learning experience, you have developed both professionally and academically, and used the experienceto shape your engagement with the final M-level units, work placement experience and future career aspirations. 9APP/PPP 1 Welcome Week:Be More PreparedRate your employability skillsITapplicationCommercialawarenessTeamworkSelf-managementCriticalthinkingProblemsolvingPeoplemanagementVerbalcommunicationCreativityWrittencommunication0 1 2 3 4 5PresentationskillsNetworking10What are your top 3 skill development priorities for your firstblock?1 23How?How?How?11APP /PPP 2: Be More ReflectiveUpdate your employability skills ratingITapplicationCommercialawarenessTeamworkSelf-managementCriticalthinkingProblemsolvingPeoplemanagementVerbalcommunicationCreativityWrittencommunication0 1 2 3 4 5PresentationskillsNetworking12What are your top 3 skill development priorities for your second block?1 23How?How?How?13APP /PPP 3: Be More DecisiveUpdate your employability skills ratingITapplicationCommercialawarenessTeamworkSelf-managementCriticalthinkingProblemsolvingPeoplemanagementVerbalcommunicationCreativityWrittencommunication0 1 2 3 4 5PresentationskillsNetworking14What are your top 3 skill development priorities for your third block?1 23How?How?How?15APP/PPP 4: Be More Research FocusedUpdate your employability skills ratingITapplicationCommercialawarenessTeamworkSelf-managementCriticalthinkingProblemsolvingPeoplemanagementVerbalcommunicationCreativityWrittencommunication0 1 2 3 4 5PresentationskillsNetworking16What are your top 3 skill development priorities for your fourth block?1 23How?How?How?17APP/PPP 5: Be more successfulUpdate your employability skills ratingITapplicationCommercialawarenessTeamworkSelf-managementCriticalthinkingProblemsolvingPeoplemanagementVerbalcommunicationCreativityWrittencommunication0 1 2 3 4 5PresentationskillsNetworking18What are your top 3 skill development priorities for your final unit?1 23How?How?How?
