PRE-MASTER'S DIPLOMA

Aim

The RLC Pre-Masters Diploma teaches learners the knowledge and skills to follow a masters’ or PhD degree. It also gives them the opportunity to practise academic theory using academic tools to solve a number of problems in a variety of different practical situations.

Course Profile

MANDATORY MODULES - LEVEL 6?

Research Methodology
This module teaches learners to understand various techniques for conducting research and assisting them to target a particular field of interest, write up a literature review, choose and justify the choice of a sampling frame for primary information gathering, compare and contrast qualitative and quantitative methods for information gathering, evaluate and utilise various questioning techniques for questionnaires or interviews, triangulation analysis and interpretation of primary and secondary data and written and illustrated graphs and tables for a targeted group of interested stakeholders.

Major Project
Learners bring together divergent ideas then organise them into clear sets of data for investigation aimed at their intended master’s degree specialism.  They will identify the main scope of their investigation and develop original ideas in the thesis as well as justifying their choice of data processing systems, key reasons for their research and a literature review of relevant published research on the topic with references to unexplored areas.

Learners select and justify a sampling frame for their research focus employing qualitative and quantitative investigations into the target research area, assessing and interpreting the information produced in relation to the original thesis statement whilst cross-referencing it to published academic work in the same area. Finally, learners present their research in an extended report and a presentation to clarify the subject and review the original hypothesis while pointing to new areas for further research.

LEVEL 3 OPTIONS?

Marketing
This unit explains to learners how they might investigate different markets that would be appropriate for their product, what tools they can use to choose the right marketing strategy and gain entry in a way that will reinforce their competitive edge and help to increase sales.

Accounting
This unit teaches learners to assess and evaluate the efficiency of process management concepts, apply the notion of constant upgrading in a functional working environment, adapt the project life cycle (PLC) to a particular scenario, assess and evaluate the use of the PLC used in a particular context.

Entrepreneurship
This subject shows learners how to explore gaps in the market, identify a business idea, match skills and resources to the proposed business activity, explore sources of finance and develop a business proposal.?

Economics
This subject will give learners a deeper understanding of how supply and market forces can affect the activities of their business. It enables them to explore the effective maximisation of resources at minimal cost to gain the most positive results.

Project Management
Learners will learn the tools for identifying how to start and run an appropriate project.  It will provide them with information on matching the finances, material and human resources with the key aims of the project at different stages in its development until completion.  It will then be reviewed for successful solutions to the original project goals and areas of weakness examined for improvement on future projects.

Business Law
This module covers all areas of contract and business law, how to write a contract and negotiate terms and conditions within the legal framework of UK law from which transferrable skills may be adapted to other countries’ laws. The unit covers invitation to treat, offer and acceptance, consideration, damages, misrepresentation and legal solutions.

Human Resource Management
Learners will understand strategies for matching job skills and qualifications to job specifications, recruitment policies, employment law and identify internal/external factors to motivate staff towards achieving their set goals and objectives.

International Trade
This unit provides learners with the opportunity to employ all their skills in starting an overseas relationship with an imaginary company in the buying and selling of products or services.  It will show learners how to analyse an industry and then its markets, looking for strengths and weaknesses that can be exploited for the financial gain of the seller and the maximum benefit of the customer.

LEVEL 4 OPTIONS?

Economics
This module teaches the macro and micro contexts of the business environment, describing the nature of government fiscal and monetary economic policies as well as the operations of the price mechanism in different market economies and its effects on performance of business in relation to different stakeholder objectives. 

Marketing
This unit develops various marketing concepts in consideration of how the extended marketing mix (7Ps - Product, Price, Promotion, Place, People, Process, Physical Evidence) can be manipulated by organisations to gain maximum competitive advantage in the presentation of the Unique Selling Points (USPs) of products and services in different markets for the duration of the product life-cycle.

Human Resource Management
Learners will gain insights into the primary motivation categories of individual employee and team and how to get the best from the workforce through intrinsic/extrinsic motivators, designing performance criteria, training, goal setting, managing objectives, monitoring and action planning.

Management
Learners on this unit discover how to match different leadership styles to different types of team according to key departmental and company objectives.  They will also discover how to select appropriate management styles and solutions according to different organisational structures.

Entrepreneurship
This subject enables learners to explore the internal and external mechanics of how to be successful in business on the basis of a sound business plan with an identifiable niche/product match, a unique selling point with an unbeatable competitive advantage, obtaining appropriate financing and a realistic, profitable return on capital. 

Accounting
This module develops the concepts of good accounting practice and explains the role of different formulae in examining relationships within accounting sheets and, in comparison with historical and competitive accounts, to accurately extract data and inform key stakeholders in the decision-making process.

Business Law
Learners explore the legislation and industry regulations surrounding the law of contract, evaluating case studies in the context of Acts of Parliament and judicial precedent.  They will also have practice in designing terms and conditions for their own contracts for different scenarios.

Project Management?
Learners will nurture and manage a project idea from inception to fruition, identifying new concepts for products or services that can be introduced to markets. Where appropriate, they will gain practical experience of the management of teams and resources within time and financial constraints according to set criteria. They will also learn how to reflect on failures and achievements for self-improvement and (CPD) Continuous Professional Development. 

LEVEL 5 OPTIONS?

Business Project
This unit encourages learners to examine, reflect, conduct, analyse and communicate the outcomes of the application of appropriate research methodologies and approaches of a business research project to key stakeholders.

Managing Business Performance
This unit helps learners to analyse the influence of culture, politics and power on the behaviour of individuals and teams and evaluate how to motivate them to achieve a goal using cooperation, organisational concepts and philosophies in a given business situation.

Strategic Financial Management
This unit shows learners how to assess the rationale for processing and presenting financial information, appraise the use of management accounting methods to support business performance, examine real and normal costs to manage and adjust inconsistencies and measure how evolving macro business factors affect financial management.

Planning Management Processes
This unit teaches learners to assess and evaluate the efficiency of process management concepts, apply the notion of constant upgrading in an a functional working environment, adapt the project life cycle (PLC) to a particular scenario and assess and evaluate the use of the PLC used in a particular context.

Copyright and Consumer Law
This unit creates in learners an ability to examine the key theories affecting the legal relationship between companies and their clients, explore consumer credit legislation, assess the main guidelines and assistance connected to copyright and associated legislation and suggest necessary responses referring to relevant case law and within the appropriate legal and regulatory framework.

Advanced Human Resource Management
This unit provides the training skills in learners to examine the main macro and micro changes which affect HR strategy, put into practice current academic and real-life experience of evolving HR theory, measure how relevant transformational management models assist HR strategy and assess the influence of HR management and development to viable company outcomes and development.

Operational Marketing Intelligence
This unit offers learners the opportunity to assess various marketing networks and how they assist communication outcomes, design communication outcomes and explain suitable pathway choice and assimilation, create and develop material relevant to the pathway and communication outcomes and show the skill of critically appraising a business example related to a communication plan, network selection and innovative material.

ENGLISH OPTIONS?

C2/CPE
This level helps learners to understand with ease virtually everything heard or read, summarise information from different spoken and written sources reconstruct arguments and accounts in a coherent presentation, express him/herself spontaneously, very fluently and precisely, differentiating finer shades of meaning even in more complex situations.

C1/CAE/BEC Higher
This level helps learners to understand a wide range of demanding, longer texts and recognise implicit meaning, express him/herself fluently and spontaneously without much obvious searching for expressions, use language flexibly and effectively for social, academic and professional purposes.
Can produce clear, well-structured, detailed text on complex subjects, showing controlled use of organisational patterns, connectors and cohesive devices.dependent

B2/FCE/BEC Vantage
This level helps learners to understand the main ideas of complex text on both concrete and abstract topics, including technical discussions in his/her field of specialisation, interact with a degree of fluency and spontaneity that makes regular interaction with native speakers quite possible without strain for either party, produce clear, detailed text on a wide range of subjects and explain a viewpoint on a topical issue giving the advantages and disadvantages of various options.

B1/BEC/Preliminary
This level helps learners to understand the main points of clear standard input on familiar matters regularly encountered in work, school, leisure, etc., deal with most situations likely to arise whilst travelling in an area where the language is spoken, produce simple connected text on topics which are familiar or of personal interest, describe experiences and events, dreams, hopes and ambitions and briefly give reasons and explanations for opinions and plans.

IELTS
Learners will learn how to communicate in academic English at a higher under-graduate level through decoding, understanding and encoding the meaning and structure of written and spoken text in different academic contexts in a way that steers their language skills towards the level of educated native speaker. 
Learners will also receive guidance and practice in grammar, vocabulary, comprehension, reading for gist, skimming, scanning for detail, composition, sentence structure, lexical discourse, listening for gist and detail, pronunciation, phonemic and lexical chunking, fluency, rhythm, word stress, task achievement and cohesion, process writing and speaking.
In addition, learners will develop special techniques for effectively responding to a variety of examination type questions and scenarios.