Professional Development Degree FAQs

There are 2 Professional Development degrees available at the University of Chester:

• An undergraduate BA/BSc Hons Professional Development by Negotiated Studies

and 

• A postgraduate MA/MSc/MBA Professional Development by Negotiated Studies

Usually, you will start with the Self Review & Negotiation of Learning module, as outlined above, although participants with relevant prior credits may be exempt from it. You will receive an induction into the course and the resources available.

Your Personal Academic Tutor (or ‘PAT') will be the person who takes you for this initial module and will typically remain as your Personal Tutor throughout your study on the programme, even though you may have other tutors for specific modules (such as Skills and Approaches for Work-Based Learning or Designing Practitioner Research).

Generally, you are expected to complete 60 credits a year. For information about the time frame of a specific award, please contact the admin office.

Your PAT will help guide you throughout your learning experience and they should be the first port of call for personal advice or academic programme issues. They will assess your Self Review portfolio and will typically act as advisor for any Accreditation of Prior Learning claims you may be putting together, and usually as supervisor for any negotiated experiential learning you undertake. Other modules may have a different tutor with a highly developed specialism in the particular field concerned, and this tutor should be the main point of contact for the taught module (or modules) concerned.

Modules are usually ‘kick-started’ with an online workshop delivered to a small cohort. Tutors are available by Teams or by e-mail to give advice and offer encouragement. In particular, they will be able to offer formative assessment feedback – check with your tutor, but you typically have an opportunity to send them a draft of any piece of work and they will give you sound advice about how to improve your assignments and about when any given piece of work is deemed submittable. You will also have access to useful tools like ‘Draft Coach’ to help with assignments and referencing.

Your initial module will typically involve you planning all (or at least elements of) your programme of study with us. There are a variety of ways in which you can build up the academic credits you need to trigger the award you desire:

• Accreditation of Prior Certificated Learning (APCL). This is where someone has been on a course previously that carries Higher Education credits and is relevant to their programme. For instance, they may have previously taken a shorter award like a Certificate or Diploma or completed a module with the Open University. This credit can then be brought into their course and count as part of their pathway.
• Accreditation of Prior Experiential Learning (APEL). This is a way in which the Professional Development course is extremely helpful, as it is designed to help participants gain recognition for their previous learning, in the workplace, ‘on the job'. Many participants are able to make significant claims for prior experiential learning, and one of the most important tasks at the outset of the course for students and tutors to engage in is to determine the extent (and likely evidence for) APEL claims.
• Negotiated Experiential Learning. Like APEL, this is about learning experientially, ‘on the job', as opposed to in a lecture theatre or seminar room, but this time with regard to current or future learning rather than learning that has already happened. Negotiated Experiential Learning modules (NELs) give participants the freedom to negotiate their own learning outcomes in topic areas, and the method of assessment too. Often, this type of learning takes the form of a work based project and students can use the outputs and artefacts generated on the job as part of their assessed work.
• Other modules – you may also be able to integrate other relevant taught modules (if practicable) from the University ‘bank’ of modules if they align with your area of practice and award title.

In these circumstances, you will need to speak to your PAT. At the start of every level of study of negotiated courses, you complete an Approved Studies Learning Agreement (ASLA) form, indicating your likely pathway for the level concerned, together with your desired end award title. If a pathway needs to be completely renegotiated, you need to speak to their PAT about this and will almost certainly need to complete a new ASLA. If the proposed award title is to change, then the same process must take place, with the new suggested award title being included on the resubmitted ASLA.

Employers may choose to sponsor you as your learning should be of direct benefit to your organisation. At the least, we would expect employers to provide a workplace mentor if practicable, to help support and guide you in your workplace learning and to help identify viable workplace projects, etc.

You will again need to speak to your PAT about this, although this is only normally an issue if the line of work in your new appointment is significantly different to your job role when you entered the programme. In these cases, a new ASLA (including possibly a new award title more reflective of the new work area concerned) may need to be negotiated. Do also remember that there may also be financial implications of changing jobs if your course was being sponsored by your previous employer.

The Master’s course is open to those who have completed the degree in Professional Development and is ideal for those who wish to develop their learning and career further. Similarly, for students who complete the MA/MSc/MBA the University operates a Doctorate in Professional Studies on a similar basis, and a Master’s in Professional Development would count as the first third of this.