| Excuse me, I was told to come here for advice about... |
| Management Diploma courses? |
| You've certainly come to the right place. |
| Hi, my name is Monica. |
| Nice to meet you. |
| My name is Andrew, Andrew Harris. |
| So, Andrew, have you seen our diploma course prospectus yet? |
| Yes, I've already looked at it. |
| In fact, I thought the information on course content was really useful, |
| but I'm afraid I'm a bit confused by all the different ways you can do the course: |
| full-time intensive, part-time and so on. |
| Well, let's see if I can help. |
| I think each course type has its advantages and disadvantages, so it really depends on you - |
| your own study habits, and your financial circumstances, of course. |
| Are you working at the moment? |
| Yes. I've been working in the administration section of the local hospital for the last three years. |
| And before that I worked in the office of a computer engineering company for two years. |
| So, I've got about five years of relevant work experience. |
| And what I'm hoping to focus on is Personnel Management. |
| I see. |
| And are you planning to leave your current job to study, |
| or are you thinking about just taking a year off? |
| I want to know what my options are, really. |
| I don't want to quit my job or anything |
| and my employers are keen for me to get some more qualifications |
| but obviously, it would be better if I could do a course without taking too much time away from work. |
| Right, so you don't really want to do the full-time course, then? |
| No, not really. |
| It's also a question of finances. |
| You see, my office have agreed to pay the cost of the course itself, |
| but I would have to take unpaid leave if I want to study full-time and, well... |
| I don't think I could afford to support myself with no salary for a whole year. |
| Okay. |
| Well, you have two other possibilities: |
| you could either do the part-time course - |
| that would be over two years and you wouldn't have to take any time off work - |
| or you could do what we call a 'modular' course. |
| You could do that in eighteen months if you wanted or longer, |
| it's quite flexible and it would be up to you. |
| So what does the part-time course involve? |
| For that you would join an evening class and have a lecture twice a week. |
| Then, you'd have to attend a seminar or discussion workshop one weekend a month. |
| What kind of coursework would I have to do? |
| Well, it's a mixture. |
| You'd be expected to write an essay each month, which counts towards your final assessment. |
| You have a case study to do by the end of the course, |
| which might involve doing a survey or something like that, |
| and also you need to hand in a short report every four weeks. |
| So, that's quite a lot of work, then, on top of working every day. |
| It sounds like a lot of studying and really tiring. |
| Yeah, you certainly wouldn't have much free time! |
| What about the 'modular' course? |
| What would I have to do for that? |
| That's where you get the opportunity to study full-time for short periods. |
| That way you can cover a lot of coursework |
| and attend lectures and seminars during the day. |
| And each module lasts for one term, say, about twelve weeks at a time. |
| There are obvious advantages in this - |
| the main one being that you can study in a much more intensive way, |
| which suits some people much better. |
| And how many of these 'modules' would I have to do to get the diploma? |
| The current programme is two modules - |
| and then you have to choose a topic to work in more depth - |
| but you can base that on your job, |
| and so you don't need to be away from the office, |
| and how long it takes is up to you. |
| The important thing is that you don't have to study and work. |
| You can focus on one thing at a time. |
| Yes, I can see that. |
| It certainly sounds attractive! |
| It would be more expensive, though. |
| I mean, I'd have to support myself without pay for each module. |
| That's true, so that might be a problem for you. |
| Look, why don't you talk this over with your employers... |