Careers in Business and Management at Level 6
General management, administration and leadership, for those who already run something and want their practice examined at degree level.
The fieldWhere degree-level work sits
Management is the field in which a Level 6 diploma is most often taken and most often accepted, because the field itself has no licence, no protected title and no single professional body. What it has instead is a convention: that from the middle grades upward, a manager is expected to have studied management, not merely practised it. Job descriptions say so in the phrase "degree or equivalent experience", and the second half of that phrase is where most applicants to this diploma have lived for years. The diploma converts experience into the first half.
Roles that ordinarily ask for study at this level
- Operations manager or general manager of a site, branch, unit or service, accountable for people, budget and delivery together
- Department head in a functional area: customer service, facilities, administration, projects, quality
- Business or commercial manager in a small or medium-sized enterprise, including owner-managers scaling a firm beyond what one person can hold in their head
- Programme or change manager leading cross-functional initiatives that need a case, a plan and a report
- Senior administrator or office manager moving into a leadership grade in a public body, charity or professional practice
The diplomaWhat Level 6 adds
What the diploma adds to an experienced manager is a vocabulary and a set of tests. Most managers already make financial, operational and people decisions; few have been asked to justify one in writing against theory and evidence, with a reader who is allowed to disagree. The assignments demand exactly that, and learners we have placed frequently say the discipline changed how they run meetings long before the certificate arrived.
For a career changer, the diploma supplies the general management grounding that a specialist background may lack: how organisations are financed, how operations are designed and measured, how strategy is made and how people are led through it. It is the broadest of the fields on this site, which is a strength for someone whose next role is not yet defined and a weakness for someone who already knows they want to be an accountant or a safety practitioner.
The three programmes in this field differ in emphasis rather than level. The OTHM Business Management diploma is the general award, with operations, finance, HR, sustainability and a research project. Qualifi's Business Administration diploma leans towards marketing, sales management, control and law. Qualifi's Business Management, Leadership and Innovation diploma is the most forward-looking, with leadership in multicultural contexts, sustainable enterprise and risk. Read the unit lists and choose the set you would want to have written about.
ProgrammesThe diplomas on this site in this field
- Level 6 Diploma in Business Management
- Level 6 Diploma in Business Administration
- Level 6 Diploma in Business Management, Leadership and Innovation
Telling them apart
| Diploma | Units | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| Diploma in Business Management (OTHM) | 6 | 120 |
| Diploma in Business Administration (Qualifi) | 5 | 120 |
| Diploma in Business Management, Leadership and Innovation (Qualifi) | 6 | 120 |
Unit titles for each are on the programme pages. A useful test: read the six or so unit titles and ask which set you would be glad to have written five thousand words about.
Ask someone who will say if this is wrong for you
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