Bite-size marketing course is stepping stone to business qualification

A new short course in marketing skills is launched by The Open University that can add up to a business management qualification.

The microcredential Business Management: Marketing principles and practice is the first in a suite of new business management 10-credit courses launched on the OU’s FutureLearn platform.

Together the six microcredentials will combine to make up a business management qualification, suitable for those working in or hoping to move into management in commercial and non-commercial sectors.

Microcredentials, launched this year, are accredited, online courses designed to help learners build specialised skills relevant to their career.

Looking at new ways to engage in a COVID-19 world

Studying Business Management: Marketing principles and practice draws on decades of experience in online learning which will allow learning to take place in a creative, interactive way placing learners in the hot seat as managerial decision-makers.

Toolkits provided as part of the content can assist managers, in a COVID-19 world, in finding diverse ways to approach new challenges facing them and their customers.

Learners need not have any prior marketing knowledge as the course allows for sharing together with the experiences of other learners together with expert facilitation from the OU’s selected tutors.

Course leader Dr Haider Ali, lecturer in strategic marketing, said:

Our marketing microcredential focuses on the tools that managers, business owners and in fact all those who deal with customers and stakeholders can use in order to understand better the needs of the people that they work with and deliver improved satisfaction. Particularly in a post-COVID-19 world where many organisations are having to do things in different ways, the toolkits that we provide will encourage learners to look at their activities in new ways.

Over a 10-week period students will learn from the marketing practices of leading organisations from around the world and which encompass industries ranging from professional services, to healthcare, the commercial sector, social enterprises, charities and more.

The course content features marketing practices from companies around the globe

The microcredential will introduce learners to the core principles of marketing – covering offline and digital perspectives. Dr Ali said:

We deal with organisations addressing the challenges of digital marketing, responding to social media and leveraging the opportunities that new business models can offer. Our emphasis is on delivering education that has immense practical value, but is underpinned with cutting edge and robust theory. We do this with an explicit focus every week to provide learners with clear and explicit guidance as to how they can use specific marketing models in their own work.

The course allows learners to find out what motivates customers, the processes that they go through before making the buying decision and how to effectively intervene.

From understanding customer behaviour, designing products and services that meet customer needs, to understanding the external environment and using data to inform business decisions.

Certificate on completion

Learners will also build a toolkit for creating products and services that meet customers’ needs and that may differentiate a product or service from those of competitors in the market.

On completion, students receive an Open University certificate confirming that they have received 10 academic credits at undergraduate level 3.