MSc in Global HR Management: Meet the Course Leader

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LISA HARDING: As we all know, the environment for organizations on a global scale is dynamic. It's highly competitive. It's rapidly changing, which presents both exciting opportunities for HR professionals, but also some challenges. So what the program aims to do is to enable students to develop their knowledge, skills and confidence to be able to contribute to the development of HR strategy that meets the objectives and the responsibilities of these global organizations.

So one of the trends, for example, that we cover in the program aligns with the greater focus on sustainability and responsible business. Now, this means there's a greater focus on HR in developing ethical sustainable and responsible strategies and approaches to people management and employability. Another trend is the impact of digital and technological transformation including artificial intelligence, which we hear a lot about and also applies to HR.

So this transformation is inevitably been exacerbated by the recent pandemic but has also facilitated change in the ways that we work. This has impacted on the way in which organizations and HR attract, recruits, on-board, orientate, manage talent, and in many cases monitors performance. In addition changes, to working practices such as flexible working, hybrid working or remote working also have implications for inclusivity and employee well-being.

Now, these are key areas in which HR is significant in terms of strategy development and operationalization. Given a more geographically dispersed workforce, a change in leadership is also required. Another trend is the changing work demographics which requires more inclusive strategies to recognize and support the diversity of the workforce.

These trends and others are explored and discussed from different perspectives. And in different scenarios across the four talk modules of the program. All this is underpinned with reference to academic theory and evidence, which is then applied to real and practical examples. Then in the final module the fifth module, which is the dissertation, students are required to investigate an HR related business problem or issue which explores probably one or another of these trends.

You do need to be interested in people. You do need to like a challenge and variety in work. And if you're eager to learn and maximize opportunities to learn and have an open mind then HR profession is ideal. So my advice for anyone interested in HR as a profession would be to develop professional networks.

So that might include becoming a member of an HR professional body. And this might be, for example, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development and engage with any forums or local meetings that they might offer you. I would also recommend having up to date knowledge of current trends. What is happening in HR and in business and any relevant legislation.

This might include wider reading and study. And you can access an awful lot of academic and professional and practitioner, excuse me, literature which are a lot of which is available publicly to download and read the important to remember to keep a record of your personal development. So a continuous professional development record.

And that might include all of those that I've just mentioned, but also any in-house or internal developmental workshops. And then finally, a key piece of advice would be to seek a mentor, who can guide and support you as you develop your career path as an HR professional.

ANDY HOWARTH: So what we do, except for the course is any degree that you've previously earned a bachelor's level there 2:2 or above or equivalent if you didn't study in the UK. And we also accept people with appropriate work experience. We would be considering applicants with work experience in the human resource field.

We'd be looking for considerable experience that you could evidence as well through the application process. And with your degree if it's not related to HR, we'd like to see you being able to put across your interest and the reasons as to why you'd want to study this particular master's within your personal statement. That is part of the process as well. So if anyone's wondering if they're eligible to apply for this master's if they're particularly interested and they haven't spoken to one of our team before, please make sure that you put an inquiry and through the study online website.

And one of either me or my team will reach out to you and we go through all these things. We go through course eligibility. We talk about funding, finance options, installments. All these kind of things. So I think that pretty much all of it. So if you're not sure from what I've said so far, if you're qualified or not then please get in touch with the team. We always like to speak to people on the phone and have a really good chat about all these things.

LISA HARDING: The CIPD is the Chartered Institute for Personal Development. And it's an HR professional body, which currently has around 160,000 members worldwide. So it's internationally recognized. As a professional body, it is committed to championing better work and working lives by improving people and organizational practices. So for the benefit of the organization's multiple stakeholders they are not just employees.

Consequently, it has a developed rigorous professional standards and a code of Professional Conduct which sets out the professional standards for HR. Those in HR roles who are members of the CIPD. And what we did was we mapped the learning outcomes for this program against the level seven CIPD learning outcomes. And these were approved.

And so we take great pride in the fact that our program has now been awarded with CIPD accreditation because it means that we meet these HR professional rigorous HR professional standards. What this means for a student is that when they enroll on our program, they are contacted by the CIPD and invited to join as a student member. Now, student membership gives you access to a wide range of resources both academic resources and professional resources such as research as well as these networks that I know I keep talking about.

But they are hugely important. And then once you as a student have finished the program and successfully passed all modules, if you are registered as a student member, you will automatically become an associate member. Now, this demonstrates your HR professional knowledge and skills and commitment to good practice. And so raises your profile within the profession.

As an online student, a level of support is comparable to that received by someone who is on campus. For example, you have the same access to support services such as academics skills tutors about which I hear nothing but fantastic feedback. And now they offer a range of support, which includes academic writing skills. So if you're coming back to academia from having worked in the industry for many years, they are unbelievably fantastic in terms of the support they offer could be referencing, 'cause many of us hadn't done referencing for a long time and planning your research.

There's also 24 hour access to a range of online library resources, which includes databases as well. As Andy mentioned earlier, we provide weekly recorded lectures. You're offered the opportunity to engage in weekly activities discussion forums. We have live webinars, which as Andy says are recorded and available to you if you can't make the webinars.

And each student has a personal tutor as well. So yeah, there's a lot of support. Just have to reach out to anyone. We could put you in the right direction.

ANDY HOWARTH: Exactly that I think that's kind of key, isn't it? When you get to a master's level study is that you really have to identify where there's an issue and then reach out for that support rather than expecting it to just pop up. So I think that's a really key thing to put across is. If there is something that you need help with then reach out to the people around you that are there to support you.

Whether that is the Student Support team. Whether that is the tutor or any of the other students around you that might be able to help you because of their experiences. That's all stuff that comes into it as well.

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