Course Overview

Gain an understanding of how the business operates – get to know your employees, who your customers are, and the marketplace. Effective planning is a vital management function so you’ll learn to set objectives, develop action plans and prioritise tasks to meet objectives.  Discover how to identify and resolve potential problems and learn to plan communications to facilitate effective change. You’ll also, develop an understanding of health and safety, and legislation surrounding business practices.

Pre-requisites

No previous experience required to access this course.

Qualification

ICS Business Management Diploma

Support and benefits

• ICS Diploma can be shown as proof to employers of the professional skills you’ve mastered
• Access to a dedicated tutor and student advisors to guide you through your studies
• Professionally developed study units
  

Key topics

• Planning Change

Consider reasons why change must take place. Learn how to plan a timescale for the implementation of changes and how to ensure that each objective is met. Explore ways of communicating information about change and involving employees in bringing about change.

• Problem Solving

Discover how to recognise problems and their scope. Learn how to identify solutions and their likely effectiveness, and how to determine the optimum solution. Discover how to monitor and review solutions that have been implemented.

• Using Information for Decision-making

Consider the importance of information for effective decision-making. Explore sources of information and methods of collecting information. Examine different decision-making models and learn how to apply them in problem solving.

• Managing Your Time

Learnt how to set SMART objectives and how to prioritise objectives. Examine different planning tools and gain the skills to estimate the duration of tasks.

• Marketing

Consider the importance of marketing for managers. Discover how to determine an organisation’s key markets and customers, as well as their major competitors. Examine the major marketing activities of organisations.

• Financial Environment

Explore the main financial documents used by organisations. Examine the financial indicators of business performance. Consider the sources of long, medium and short term funds.

• Communication Process

Examine the communication cycle and learn how to overcome barriers to successful communication. Discover how to ensure that communication at work is effective.

• Health and Safety – Law and Practice

Explore legislation relating to health, safety and welfare at work. Study the main features of organisations’ health and safety policies. Examine procedures for dealing with injuries, diseases and dangerous occurrences.

• Understanding Customers

Discover how to recognise external, internal and potential customers, and how to identify external and internal customers’ needs. Consider the need for customer care standards, and learn how to maintain effective customer relationships.

• Leadership

Consider the difference between leadership and management. Explore alternative leadership styles and discover when to apply a particular style. Identify your own preferred leadership style. Discover how to develop trust within your team.

Course Code

N35

Hours of study

9 months / 80 hours

Technical requirements

None

Outline

You’ll complete ten assessments during your course. These assessments can be submitted to ICS online via the Student Community, or they can be posted to ICS. It is recommended that you submit your assessments online as you will receive your results more quickly this way.

Assessment Breakdown

• Assessment 1: 3 scenario-based short answer questions
• Assessment 2: 3 scenario-based short answer questions
• Assessment 3: 3 scenario-based short answer questions
• Assessment 4: 3 scenario-based short answer questions
• Assessment 5: 3 scenario-based short answer questions
• Assessment 6: 4 scenario-based short answer questions
• Assessment 7: 3 scenario-based short answer questions
• Assessment 8: 3 scenario-based short answer questions
• Assessment 9: 3 scenario-based short answer questions
• Assessment 10: 4 scenario-based short answer questions

Notes

Scenario-based short answer questions test that you can apply the knowledge you have learnt from the course to imaginary scenarios. Each question requires an answer of about a paragraph in length, and a suggested word count helps you to judge the exact length of answer expected.