Professional Skills for Business and Finance Module - Learning Outcomes, Expectations, and Assessmen

Introduction
Welcome to the Professional Skills for Business and Finance module. This module is the foundation for the rest of your degree course and will equip you with many skills needed to complete your degree. It will introduce you to the world of Business and Finance and will use creative and engaging activities throughout. The material will help you to become more self-reliant, critical, self-aware, self-confident, skilled and capable in the use of information and resources. 

This module provides, through practice within authentic tasks, an introduction to critical enquiry, team working, presentation skills and business ideas. By learning to enquire more critically you will become more analytical about truth claims and learn to differentiate between evidence-based recommendations, arguments or policies and unsubstantiated opinion. You will learn to use the harvard referencing system correctly and develop argument through the process of critical enquiry. 

You will also be introduced to business ideas and learn presentation skills. There is a strong emphasis on Professional skills required in the workplace and an expectation that students will learn and demonstrate these skills during the module. Professionalism is a key business and employability skill and this module will introduce many of the concepts required to be successful. 

Throughout there is the opportunity through formative assignments which will help you with the formal assessments. Please note that this module will also support the other modules you do during the semester. 

As with any other module on a degree programme, the amount of benefit that you will gain from the module is related to the amount of effort that you put in. This includes regular participation and contact with your peers, contact sessions, active participation in class discussions, and regular visits to the
Blackboard site for this module. 

Full attendance on this module is expected. Latecomers to the seminars will be admitted up to 1 hour after the start of the seminar. Students who need to miss a class must email their tutor prior to the class. Mobile phones are not to be used during seminars

Module summary content and aims
This Study Guide provides important information about the structure, content, reading and assessment in this module. Please read it carefully and refer back to it throughout the semester. Lessons will cover the following topics:
• Managing yourself and your Learning
• Academic writing
• Referencing and Plagiarism
• Presentation skills/Interview Skills
• Group work skills
• Leadership
• Professionalism
• Personal Branding

Expectations

Expectations
Specific expectations students can have of tutors:
• Helpfulness
• Professionalism
• Timely responses to queries and timely marking
• Knowledge of the subject area and how to apply knowledge to the business environment
• Good timekeeping
• Help with assessment preparation
• To make learning enjoyable and relevant

Specific expectations tutors will have of students:
• Full attendance at classes either face to face or online
• If you cannot attend to let the tutor know in good time
• Engagement in all course activities (Online and Face to Face)
• 161 hours of independent study
• Submission of work on time
• Professional behaviour in and out of class
• Good communication with tutors/Course Leader should difficulties occur
• Constructive feedback where possible

Learning outcomes to be assessed
By the end of this module you will be able to:
LO1 Organise, structure and present information in a logical and coherent manner
LO2 Identify and select resources appropriate to a given subject
LO3 Cite sources and use Harvard referencing correctly
LO4 Collaborate effectively with others towards the completion of a defined task (teamwork skills)
LO5 Develop skills in oral and written communication in the Business Environment
L06 Develop an understanding of the importance of Business etiquette, and the importance of rules and values in an organisation
L07 Develop skills to be a Reflective learner and to use feedback to improve performance

Assessment brief including criteria mapped to learning outcomes

There are two summative assessments:
• Essay writing including a literature search with good referencing (50%)
• Presentation 

The summative assessments will done at week 8, and week 12/13 of the module You must achieve a minimum mark of 40% to pass the module and achieve 20 academic credits at Level 4.

Your module mark is obtained by aggregating the individual marks for the two assessments taking into account the weighting for each element.

Assessment 1
“What is Academic Plagiarism and why is academic integrity relevant to professionalism in a Business environment ? ” - Weighting: 50%

Learning Outcomes Assessed:
• LO1 Organise, structure and present information in a logical and coherent manner
• LO2 Identify and select resources appropriate to a given subject
• LO3 Cite sources and use Harvard referencing correctly
• LO5 Develop skills in oral and written communication in the Business Environment
• L06 Develop an understanding of the importance of Business etiquette, and the importance of rules and values in an organisation

Assessment 2
Presentation
Weighting: 50%

Learning Outcomes assessed:
LO1 Organise, structure and present information in a logical and coherent manner
LO2 Identify and select resources appropriate to a given subject
LO4 Collaborate effectively with others towards the completion of a defined task (teamwork skills)
LO5 Develop skills in oral and written communication in the Business Environment
L06 Develop an understanding of the importance of Business etiquette, and the importance of rules and values in an organisation
L07 Develop skills to be a Reflective learner and to use feedback to improve performance 

Dragons Den

Students will be required to come up with an idea for a product or service that that would like to get an initial investment of up to £100,000 (Seed Capital) Seed capital is the initial capital used when starting a business for covering initial operating expenses and attracting venture capitalists.

Students are encouraged to be creative about the product or service. They can invent a company name and decide where and how the business is located. It should however be a small or medium size enterprise, (SME) as it a new business idea. They can decide on the required workforce and what the investment would be used for depending on the product or service chosen

Students should cover the following in the presentation which should be a maximum of 10 slides.
Note that the quality of slides will be assessed

1. Introduction to the Pitch (1 Slide)
2. Outline of the product or service idea (2 Slides)
3. Statistical data to back up the idea (2 Slides)
4. Why the idea is investable, (Business plan summary, return on investment) (2 Slides)
5. What the investment would be used for (2 Slides)
6. Conclusion/Summary (1 Slide)

Learning materials

The reading list for this module is available on Blackboard in the module area and online by searching uwl.rl.talis.com. This shows real-time availability of books in the library and provides direct links to online resources, recommended by your lecturer.

Remember to log into Blackboard daily to receive all the latest news and support available at your module sites!
Subject guides (subject-guides-libguides) are also available to help you find relevant information for assignments, with contact details of the Academic Support Librarian for your School.