Course summary

Senior Leader Apprenticeships are an innovative way of retaining talent in your organisation. Apprentices are employed by you but study at Loughborough University, and are selected and supported by your organisation to take part. The part-time Senior Leader Apprenticeship – MSc Strategic Leadership pathway is particularly relevant if your organisation is looking to invest in its current and future leaders to build your strategic capabilities. The Apprenticeship is fully funded through the Apprenticeship Levy and there’s the option to complete a top-up year for the full master’s award in Strategic Leadership. Benefits to employers You identify and support the individuals you think would be best suited to this programme, which is designed to stretch apprentices’ strategic thinking and critical analysis, and give them the tools to evaluate and improve your current business practices. Apprentices carry on working with you while they study and apply leadership and strategic theory within your workplace as they learn to adapt to new scenarios and implement new ideas. Through work-based assignments, participants develop practical and innovative solutions to current problems you may be facing. Apprentices have gone on to design, update and improve core strategic processes within their organisations as a direct result of the programme. By offering this apprenticeship, your organisation can benefit from: current and future leaders increasing their focus on strategic objectives new ideas to improve organisational processes such as change management, governance, marketing and information management being able to evaluate ethical approaches to leadership applying value-based decision-making techniques. Apprentices spend time away from their job, studying through a mix of face-to-face, interactive online and work-based learning. The rest of their time is spent in the workplace applying their new skills and knowledge to your organisation. This enables them to balance their work commitments with studying part time at one of the UK’s leading business schools. Benefits to apprentices By taking part in this programme, apprentices develop a sought-after toolkit of practical skills, learning to think critically, produce persuasive business reports and harness the latest coaching techniques. The Apprenticeship covers the latest theories and thinking in areas such as leadership, strategy, governance, risk management, influencing organisational change, ethical decision making, information management and innovation. Participants also have plenty of opportunity to learn and share current practice and insights with peers, often building long-lasting business networks. The blended learning approach, with block face-to-face teaching and online content, supports participants to balance learning, work and personal commitments effectively. After successful completion of the two-year programme and an End Point Assessment, each apprentice receives two awards: a Postgraduate Diploma in Strategic Leadership and Senior Leader Level 7 Apprenticeship. They then have the option to continue onto the third year to complete the MSc in Strategic Leadership. Support throughout the work-based learning Each apprentice works with an Academic Mentor from Loughborough Business School, along with a Work-Based Mentor chosen by you. These mentors support the apprentice, mapping their learning across to the apprenticeship standards, and making sure you and they get the most from the programme. Our Workplace Learning Specialist, and experienced academic and administrative teams, are also there to support you and your apprentices throughout.