MA Human Resource Management (Full Time)

This CIPD-accredited course has three aims:

• to progress your knowledge and competence in people management and development
• to provide in-depth study of core professional subject areas
• to offer an intellectually challenging and flexible learning environment at master's level.

The MA will develop your skills in independent learning, critical evaluation, discussions and debate, as well as offer the opportunity, through the dissertation, to explore a subject at depth.

In today's complex and dynamic working environment, HR managers and professionals need to address a host of employment issues. The course will give you both practical experience through your placement and advanced knowledge and expertise through the units studied. You will progress to the level of a critical observer of HRM rather than purely an HR manager.

The course has no work experience requirement. Students will be selected on the basis of their maturity of outlook, their ability to benefit from the course and to make the contribution that will be expected of them. Students wishing to gain graduate CIPD membership are required to undertake a placement of a minimum of 30 days.

Industrial focus

You are given the opportunity to undertake a six-week work placement. During this placement, students work on live projects for companies and produce a research project for their CIPD accreditation.

Course content

Applications for exemptions from any course unit, except the dissertation, will be considered. No more than 60 credits can be exempted.

Core units

Learning and Development: You will analyse how the development of people can contribute to the enhanced performance of individuals, teams and organisations. The unit looks at the strategic and operational integration of development intothe organisation, focusing on the wider national context and the
notion of talent.

Human Resource Management in Context: This unit aims to broaden your understanding of the internal and external factors that affect organisations, including the constantly evolving managerial and business context in which managers, HR professionals and employees interact.

Leading, Managing and Developing People: In this unit you will critically assess how people are managed and developed in contemporary organisations. You will study major research evidence on effective approaches to human resource (HR) and learning and development
(L&D) practice.

Investigating a Business Issue 1:
You will develop a stronger awareness of your own strengths and weaknesses as managers and colleagues. The unit focuses on developing and improving a range of skills that are pivotal to successful management practice and effective leadership. These include thinking and decision-making skills, the management of financial information, managing budgets, teamwork and interpersonal skills, and developing personal effectiveness and credibility at work.

Resourcing and Talent Management: You will analyse the role of resourcing and talent management in supporting strategic objectives in national and international contexts. The unit examines the various approaches to resourcing in organisations through recruitment, selection, employee retention and dismissal processes.

Managing Employment Relations: The aim of this unit is to provide personnel and development professionals with an understanding of employment relations, both nationally and internationally, from theoretical and behavioural competency perspectives.

Leadership and Management Development (possible option):
The focus of this unit is the development of leadership and management and their role in facilitating change and growth in individuals, teams and organisations.

Employment Law (possible option): You will learn the key principles that underpin UK (or Irish) and EU employment law, their purpose, the major defences that employers are able to deploy when defending cases and the potential organisational costs and risks associated with losing them. You will focus on situations that occur relatively regularly in workplaces, rather than on more obscure legal scenarios or on advanced knowledge of legislation or case law.

Investigating a Business Issue 2: Through a work placement, this unit provides the opportunity for students to diagnose and investigate a live, complex business issue from an HR perspective. You will collect and analyse data, derive supportable conclusions and make practical and actionable recommendations for change, improvement or enhancement of current practice.

Assessment

Assessments vary across units and are a mixture of written assignments, skills and exams.

Key career skills

Communication, presentation, researching, assimilating and presenting data in a professional context, teamwork (particularly cross-culture), training skills.

Projects/work experience

Students have completed placements and projects on behalf of organisations such as the Maritime and Coastguard Agency, the NHS, Sainsbury’s and Winchester University.

Why Solent is special

• This course offers not only MA Human Resource Management but also membership of the CIPD. This is the new associate-level membership and is sought by students and employers alike.
• A combination of master’s-level study, work experience and professional accreditation ensures that graduates from this course enter the workplace with considerable advantages.
• Students have the opportunity to undertake a six-week work placement.

Fees

Fees for the academic year 2013/14 are:
UK and EU students: £4,500 per year or £375 per unit of study

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