BSc (Hons) Digital Business Management with Foundation Year
School of Coding in Partnership with Harper Adams University
Course Overview
This innovative course, BSc (Hons) Digital Business Management with Foundation Year blends core business principles with cutting-edge digital skills, preparing you to lead in a world shaped by technology, data, and innovation. From digital marketing and e-commerce to analytics and emerging technologies, you will gain the expertise needed to succeed in modern business environments.
The foundation year provides a supportive entry point, helping you build confidence, academic skills, and digital awareness before progressing to the full degree. You will be able to demonstrate your knowledge and skills through verbal, written, practical and collaborative tasks that will provide a broad underpinning for your ongoing academic journey.
With a strong focus on real-world application, industry relevance, and employability, this course equips you to become a forward-thinking professional ready to drive digital transformation across industries. It is also ideal if you aim for higher-level management roles in the digital economy, or as preparation for postgraduate study.
| Qualification Title | BSc (Hons) Digital Business Management with Foundation Year |
| Level | Undergraduate |
| Awarding body | Harper Adams University |
| Mode of Study | Full-Time or Part-Time |
| Delivery | All 7 days of the week |
| Duration | Full-Time: 4 Years / Part-Time: 6 Years |
| Intakes | May, September & January |
| Campus | Birmingham |
Course Structure & Modules
Year 1
- Credits: 20
- Core/option: Core
- Credits: 20
- Core/option: Core
This module is designed for students interested in pursuing degrees in food production/management or business management, but the principles of food and business that you will learn are highly transferable. You will develop a broad understanding of topics related to these fields, including micro and macro environments, pricing and costings, communications and consumer behaviour, and begin to develop the skills and knowledge needed to apply them sustainably in a real-world context.
You will have the opportunity to work both individually and collaboratively in groups, identifying and solving problems, conducting market research and analysis, and business planning. Alongside the key theories and business practices, you will develop skills in communication, planning, digital literacy as it applies to food and business, teamworking, and many other graduate attributes sought after by employers
- Credits: 20
- Core/option: Core
Your academic and professional careers will be underpinned by a set of core skills. This module will equip you with a portfolio of vocational, practical and technical skills which will serve you through your academic, social and professional development – including ICT, core subject-related skills and wider personal/professional/interpersonal skills development. Through a blend of mandated workshops and self-selected/self-directed learning experiences, it will provide you with opportunities to reflect on your own skills gaps, strengths and weaknesses.
- Credits: 20
- Core/option: Core
This module is intended to support the early development of critical thinking and synthesis by signposting you toward global challenges that will have a real and current impact on local businesses/organisations and their stakeholders.
You will explore regional and global problems and their impact on global resources, the environment, and human societies. You will identify and explore challenges that may shape organisational Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) strategies, underpinned by sustainable development goals, that will be further studied later in your degree programme.
- Credits: 20
- Core/option: Core
Economics and marketing are the key pillars of any successful business, and a strong understanding of both is essential for any businessperson looking to succeed in today’s competitive market. By combining insights from both fields, businesspeople can develop effective strategies for pricing, marketing, and growth that drive long-term success. You will begin to appreciate how marketers, in the conventional as well as in the digital world, are encouraged to integrate marketing with economics, to create successful and effective business decisions, considering both the micro-economic and macro-economic situation of the globalised world. We will explore the ways that consumers behave and make decisions, how businesses set prices, demand and supply, and the positioning of products and services. You will learn how economics and marketing can help businesses identify new market opportunities and develop effective marketing strategies in a global marketplace.
- Credits: 10
- Core/option: Core
This module aims to support the development of group working skills and capabilities. You will gain insight into your teamwork skills through undertaking group activities and tasks. This learning will benefit you both when undertaking group assignments for your degree, but also whilst on placement with employers. You will undertake a group challenge, which allows you to test your skills in a supportive environment. You will reflect on these experiences to develop stronger self-awareness and improve skills for use in your future academic career.
- Credits: 10
- Core/option: Core
This module brings together the academic, vocational and research skills you will have gained across the foundation year, providing an opportunity for students across the programme to apply these skills by researching, creating and presenting an academic poster on a topic related to your intended destination course.
Year 2
- Credits: 20
- Core/option: Core
- Credits: 20
- Core/option: Core
“Professional and Study Skills” is a module designed to equip students with essential professional and academic skills. This module provides an opportunity to develop capabilities in key areas such as research, writing, web technology, Markdown, Excel, tidy data management, introductory programming, and effective presentation techniques. By integrating these skills, the module supports students in becoming proficient and adaptable professionals, capable of excelling in their academic and future career pursuits.
- Credits: 20
- Core/option: Core
This module focuses on the practical side of business management. You will explore how businesses operate day-to-day, including decision-making, teamwork, communication, and problem-solving.
- Credits: 20
- Core/option: Core
This module is focused on personal well-being and human resource management in the context of different digital workplaces. It explores how personal well-being, effective work settings and management approaches intersect in today’s digitally-driven organisations to create and deliver products and services across different geographical areas and cultures.
Recognising the significance of work in our lives, the module highlights the importance of prioritising well-being in the workplace and ensuring that work is meaningful. The rise of digital technologies has profoundly influenced our lifestyles and work dynamics. Within this context, the module examines how digitalisation and new technologies affect different work settings and investigates principles and methods for sustaining employee well-being and productivity.
- Credits: 20
- Core/option: Core
At a time when data is one of the most valuable commodities, this module will develop your skills and abilities in data collection, processing, interpretation and communication within a business context, transforming data into actionable management information and insights.
You will be learning through hands-on exercises, gaining an understanding of the underpinning concepts, and exploring real-world case studies. As well as developing essential techniques in data gathering and analysis, you’ll be learning about visualisation, modelling, and data management, how to communicate your findings to different audiences, and the ethical and legal considerations too, giving you technical proficiency and a management mindset, ready to contribute to decision-making processes in business.
- Credits: 20
- Core/option: Core
This module delves into the influence of various cultures and traditions on business practices, as well as the roles of workers, managers, and entrepreneurs. It also analyses how digital technologies shape these dynamics, particularly in the context of Industry 4.0 and the digital economy, leading to shifts in global value chains and the emergence of new digital strategies and business practices.
Year 3
- Credits: 20
- Core/option: Core
- Credits: 20
- Core/option: Core
This module explores how to manage and work effectively with people in organisations. You will examine leadership, communication, teamwork, employment law, and managing change, while also reflecting on your own management and professional development.
- Credits: 20
- Core/option: Core
This module explores how businesses use digital technologies and marketing strategies to engage customers. Through case studies and practical activities, you will learn about e-business models, digital marketing tools, and current trends shaping modern business.
- Credits: 20
- Core/option: Core
This module focuses on understanding customers and developing practical business skills. You will learn how to create customer profiles, design marketing campaigns, deliver sales pitches, and negotiate with clients and partners through team-based projects.
- Credits: 20
- Core/option: Core
This module allows you to investigate a real business problem related to digital business management. With guidance from a supervisor, you will conduct research, analyse findings, and present your results in a structured report.
- Credits: 20
- Core/option: Core
This module explores how digital technologies shape business strategy and innovation. You will examine digital systems, emerging technologies, and how organisations adapt to digital change while developing the skills to support digital transformation.
Year 4
- Credits: 20
- Core/option: Core
This module explores how businesses operate in the global digital economy. You will examine international business relationships, finance, and operations while developing a global management perspective.
- Credits: 20
- Core/option: Core
This module aims to define what businesses are doing to adopt a more sustainable approach to business management. Students will examine a number of case studies, which will attempt to demonstrate how individual businesses are aligning their activities to address global sustainability challenges such as climate change, carbon reduction, energy and water scarcity and poverty reduction.
This module also explores the subject of business ethics and the related concept of corporate social responsibility. The module assesses the business need for ethical practice and examines the strategies through which ethical practices can become embedded. More practically, it is anticipated that students will be able to apply ethical theory and moral reasoning to successful, sustainable management decision-making.
- Credits: 20
- Core/option: Core
Strategic Leadership follows from and is delivered in conjunction with the module Integrated Global Business to provide the underpinning learning behind the students’ Capstone Project. Strategic Leadership concerns the transition of intent into action and the implementation of solutions through strategic thinking and the development of the personal leadership skills required to achieve this.
For the Capstone Project, students must work in teams to develop solutions for external clients with an international focus. The project runs for the whole of the final year and provides an immersive and dynamic mix of enrichment activity and experiential learning. Where the first-year Kickstarter Project was an introduction to the fundamentals of business, the Capstone Project requires complex and integrated strategic decision-making across a comprehensive range of business functions and operations. The project is undertaken in teams, and students are assessed individually for the Strategic Leadership component.
Integrated Global Business facilitates the students’ learning of the dynamics and relationships required for effective international business and commerce.
Intended Learning Outcomes
Students who complete this module will be able to:
– Apply conceptual models to the real-world development and implementation of integrated strategies in organisational contexts.
– Make strategic decisions that include a variety of perspectives: commercial, international, ethical, and sustainable.
– Develop personally effective styles and modes of leadership.
- Credits: 20
- Core/option: Core
This module introduces the skills and knowledge needed to start and grow a business. You will explore entrepreneurship, innovation, and the use of digital technologies in creating sustainable ventures. Through real-world case studies, you will develop skills in research, pitching, and presenting ideas, while learning how businesses form, grow, and adapt to meet the needs of customers and stakeholders.
- Credits: 40
- Core/option: Core
In this module, you will conduct a significant piece of research into a topic area of your choice. The reading and research you will do allows you to demonstrate your academic ability and also to indulge yourself in an area of particular personal interest.
You will have a dedicated academic helping you all the way as a research supervisor, supporting you to produce a research proposal along with a literature review, which will be assessed on its own at the end of the first term. You will then conduct your research and analysis, and present this in an appropriate format such as an academic report, consultancy report, policy ‘white paper’, or digital portfolio, which you will submit at the end of the second term.
The module will include tuition in research methods and analysis.
Alongside the tuition and supervision, there are supporting activities such as a students’ research conference, opportunities to submit to an in-house journal, and in-depth preparation for students’ specific career choices and post-university employment, achieved through targeted intensive small group teaching and coaching. This will include engagement with industry professionals and specialists, and enrichment opportunities.
Entry Requirements
- Minimum age required 17 years 6 months
- 6 GCSE passes at grade C/4 or above, including English, Science and Maths (or 5 GCSE passes at grade C/4 or above, to include English language, maths and science if you also have a level 3 qualification such as A level or BTEC).
- The required qualifications must be completed before applying.
- Mature students (21+) with relevant experience are encouraged to apply. Your application will be assessed via an interview and an assessment day.
With businesses increasingly relying on digital innovation, this degree opens doors to high-growth, future-ready careers across industries.
Benefits
At School of Coding & AI, in partnership with Harper Adams University, this programme offers:
- Foundation Year Support: Ideal for students returning to education or changing career paths.
- Industry-Relevant Curriculum: Focused on real-world digital business applications.
- Practical Learning Approach: Learn by doing through projects and case studies.
- Digital Skills Focus: Gain expertise in data, e-commerce, and digital marketing.
- Global Career Readiness: Prepare for opportunities in a technology-driven economy.
You will graduate with a strong blend of business acumen and digital expertise—skills highly valued across industries.
Future Career
Graduates of this programme will be well-prepared for a wide range of careers, including:
- Digital Marketing Executive: Plan, execute, and optimise online marketing campaigns across platforms such as social media, search engines, and email.
- Business Analyst: Analyse business processes and data to identify opportunities for improvement and growth.
- Data Analyst: Interpret complex datasets to uncover trends, patterns, and actionable insights and support business decision-making.
- Digital Transformation Consultant: Support organisations in adopting new technologies and digital strategies to improve efficiency and competitiveness.
- Entrepreneur / Startup Founder: Launch and grow your own business by leveraging digital tools, market insights, and innovative ideas.
FAQs
No, the foundation year is designed to support students from all backgrounds.
Yes, the course includes real-world projects, case studies, and applied learning.
The combination of business management and digital innovation, delivered in partnership with Harper Adams University, ensures you graduate with highly relevant, in-demand skills.
Get in Touch
35 Livery St, Birmingham B3 2PB, United Kingdom
0121 582 4468