The Professional
Business Diploma

Business:

• Business environment – stock markets and investing, economics, current affairs, politics, business finance and government
• Business communication – non-verbal communication, oral, and written including formal report writing, letters and emails, press releases.
• Business English – clarity and composition
• Research skills
• Business planning
• Customer service and telephone technique
• Management and leadership
• Minute taking and meetings documentation
• Travel itineraries
• Audio transcription

IT:

• Document creation to a very high standard using Microsoft Word including mail merge, macros, tables of contents, etc.
• Problem solving with Microsoft Excel including IF statements, Lookups, Pivot Tables, etc.
• Creation of professional presentation decks using Microsoft PowerPoint including slide masters, title masters, hyperlinks, etc.
• Database marketing using databases including queries, reports, forms, etc.
• Diary, email, and contact management using Microsoft Outlook.

Digital Marketing:

• Understand the principles of digital marketing and why they are important in a marketing strategy
• Learn how to approach social media marketing for business strategically with practical hands on experience.
• Learn how to create content in an engaging way, and how to measure it.
• Understand the importance of professional engagement on social media platforms
• Learn the basic principles of email and content marketing, and how to conduct a social media audit
• Learn how to plan and execute content for social media for a business
• Learn how to develop a personal brand on Linkedin and use it professionally for networking and job search

Event Management:

• Students will understand the variety of roles and responsibilities required for organising a wide range of events.
• To develop interpersonal skills, along with the use of a variety of scheduling tools and supporting documentation to monitor the planning process.
• Risk assessment, health and safety planning and contingency planning
• Students will work on a dedicated Event Management project, working to a client’s brief (alongside a team of others). They will be presenting their event proposal to the client as a competitive bid for the business.
• In Term 3 this module is integrated into a cross modular project which combines all skills and learning to present ideas to a panel of judges on an event for a product launch as part of a new company.

Personal Development Planning and Career Support:

All students follow a personal job search programme and help with the job application process.

The planning includes:

• Different learning styles and team building
• Belbin Team Roles
• CV analysis, interview technique
• Myers Briggs Personality Profiling

Students are introduced to recruitment agencies at the start of the course.

Work Experience:

A week long work experience is another key part of this course which takes place during the third term.

Students indicate which business sector they are interested in and the type of roles they would like to try or experience.  We are lucky to have such close relationships with recruitment agencies and companies over many years. They really value our students and are keen to help with this essential part of the course. Each student indicates what sort of business and role they would like to try and suitable positions are arranged mainly in London. Some students may choose to remain in Oxford for their work experience placement.

Many of our students secure job offers from this week.