Managing 2 - Marketing and Finance

Managing 2: Marketing and Finance is one of the three modules of the Professional Certificate in Management, prestigious qualification in management programme offered by CODECS.

The Professional Certificate in Management is accredited by the National Authority for Qualifications (COR code 112029 - Manager) with the opinion of the National Register of adult training providers 40/12138/15.10.2013 number.

The course, which is a six months course, can be studied independently, but to obtain The Professional Certificate in Management students must pass all 3 modules of the program: “Management 1: organisations and people”, “Management 2: marketing and finance” and “Management 3: the integration challenge.

Who is it for

Designed for working managers, those who deputies for managers, supervisors and team leaders, it takes a very practice-based approach to studying management concepts, focusing on your own role. It is suitable for aspiring managers provided you have experience of work involving leading a group or team; a project or task involving one or more others; or running/helping to run a voluntary organisation.
It is not suitable if you have no previous work experience (paid or unpaid) on which to draw.

Educational aims

This module responds to the practical needs of aspiring and first-line managers, team leaders and supervisors, many of whom may not be directly involved in marketing or finance. It uses activities and problem solving to investigate topics such as the external environment; consumer relationships; market research; product/service analysis; price, promotion and delivery; quality; consumer expectations and satisfaction; financial planning and monitoring through budgets; cashflow; profit and loss.

You will focus on scenarios, case studies and your own role, whether in the commercial, public or voluntary sector.

This module is offered with a combination of face-to-face and online activities.

The problem-based approach to management learning

One important difference between this course and other management courses that you may have considered or studied is that it is problem based. Many management qualifications provide a clear academic understanding of management issues, and this is useful. But being a successful manager requires more than this. Our approach combines academic understanding with practical application. During your studies you will regularly solve management problems by applying relevant management knowledge. You learn not just ‘what’ but ‘how’ (as well as ‘why’, ‘when’, ‘where’ and ‘who’).
A problem is simply an opportunity to improve or do something differently. Problem solving is applied to difficult and negative situations, and also to any situation where we want to do something differently and perhaps better than at present. You will work on two types of problem, using either your own work situations to think about how you could make a change or improvement, or scenarios (problem-solving case studies) which are similar to real work situations. As you go through the module, you will be able to
use more learning in each problem, thus integrating through application what you have learned earlier.

What you will study

The course poses such questions as: What is marketing exactly? How is it done in different contexts, including the public sector? What’s internal marketing? Who are your customers and stakeholders? How can you avoid marketing mistakes? Precisely what is your organisation exchanging with consumers and clients? How does your organisation deliver your goods and services and how does it add value? How do you price, promote and deliver your goods or services? How do you keep your consumers and clients happy? Why is finance important? What are budgets for and how can they be used? What are costs and how can you break them down to understand them better? What is cash flow and why is it important? What’s a profit and loss account and is it relevant to non-commercial sectors?

At appropriate points throughout the course, questions of business ethics and sustainability are addressed and you are encouraged to consider these aspects carefully in the course activities you undertake.

Through activities related to your own work and practices and related reading you will critically reflect on and analyse workplace situations and your own ways of managing clients and finance. The course is ‘solution oriented’ to help you to understand work situations from a manager’s perspective, and to work out what to do, given that you are not likely to be in charge of the organisation you work for. As you work through activities, problems and solutions, you will question the idea that there are single solutions to problems or that there is ‘one best way’. You will come to understand the constraints, choices and demands that managers need to take into account when making decisions.

As many first line managers are not directly responsible for marketing or finance, the course includes problem scenarios and cases for you to work on. A single problem scenario runs through the finance content to help you make sense of how the different elements of financial management fit together. The idea is to improve your understanding of finance so that you can improve your managerial decision making, rather than to teach you accountancy. The same is true of marketing: every manager needs to understand who the organisation is serving, and why, in order to manage employees in the organisation more effectively.

Study materials

What's included

Course books, CDs and, via the course website, additional resources in digital formats.

Computing requirements

You will need a computer with internet access to study this course which includes also online activities.

Support from your tutor

You will have a tutor who will help you with the study material and study activities. You can ask the tutor for help and advice. The tutor will also mark and comment on your assignments.

Assessment

The assessment components are:

The tutor-marked assignments (TMAs) consist of activities carried out as part of your study of the course. You will be expected to submit your (TMAs) online.

The end-of-module assessment (EMA) is wholly problem-based and will be focused on a workplace situation of your own.

To promote the course is mandatory, for each of the two TMA, and also for the EMA, to get at least 40 points on a scale from 0 to 100.

Residential school

There is a residential school in this course with the objective to consolidate and review the course material. Complex case study that students analyze at school integrates the whole areas studied.

Certification

The award of the course Certificate and of the Academic Transcript is conferred by CODECS.