Executive leadership
Develop your executive judgement through seven KBC modules, each with 14 weekly online sessions. Six OTHM diploma units connect with an applied strategy and leadership studio.
Develop the judgement to lead beyond your own function. This seven-module programme brings strategy, leadership, people, finance, marketing and research together with an applied executive studio. Teaching is delivered online through Kent Business College in the UK, with space to debate ideas, practise difficult decisions and build a coherent professional portfolio.
Every module contains 14 weekly sessions of two hours each. The full KBC learning package therefore includes 98 live sessions and 196 live teaching hours. You can explore each module’s outcomes, practical project and indicative session plan below, then open its dedicated page for a closer view of the learning.
KBC’s programme book confirms the seventh module as the Applied Strategy and Leadership Studio. The regulated diploma itself comprises six OTHM units: four mandatory subjects and the two selected options shown below. The studio adds applied learning without increasing the diploma’s 120 regulated credits.
Each module is a 14-session semester with 28 live teaching hours. These original learning plans translate the subject areas into practical weekly work; the cohort syllabus and issued assignment briefs set the final requirements. Open individual sessions below, or expand the complete plan.
Module 1 · 14 sessions · 28 live hours
Mandatory OTHM unit · 20 credits
Investigate the organisation’s position and turn competing options into a reasoned recommendation. Start with the decision to be made, then test the assumptions that could change it.
Examine why the organisation exists, whom it serves and what decision it faces. Separate a strategic choice from an operational improvement and agree the boundaries of your investigation.
Practical output: A focused strategic question and context brief.
Investigate developments that could affect customers, costs or the organisation’s ability to operate. Rank their relevance and identify the evidence needed to distinguish a material change from a passing signal.
Practical output: An external evidence log with implications and uncertainties.
Consider how customers currently solve their problem, including substitutes and doing nothing. Examine competitive pressure without assuming that every competitor is pursuing the same audience or value proposition.
Practical output: A market-position analysis and competitor assumptions.
Inspect resources, relationships, systems and know-how. Test whether a claimed strength creates value in the intended market, and identify bottlenecks that a growth proposal could make worse.
Practical output: A capability map with strengths, gaps and dependencies.
Review existing commitments and their observed consequences. Ask which results support the present direction, which costs are hidden and which activities consume capacity without advancing the organisation’s purpose.
Practical output: A diagnosis of the current plan and priority issue.
Follow one decision from organisational direction through a business unit to daily operations. Identify contradictions between objectives and the management arrangements that could reconcile them.
Practical output: A map linking corporate, business and operational choices.
Create distinct directions rather than differently priced versions of one preferred idea. Consider focus, partnership, service redesign or market development, and state what the organisation would stop doing.
Practical output: Three options with explicit assumptions and exclusions.
Agree criteria before scoring options. Compare fit, stakeholder consequences, capability, affordability and risk, then challenge whether the weighting or evidence quietly favours the sponsor’s preferred answer.
Practical output: An option appraisal with a reasoned recommendation.
Change a major assumption in the case and reconsider the choice. Use plausible scenarios to identify resilient actions, commitments that should wait and signals that would trigger a review.
Practical output: A scenario test and strategic decision triggers.
Translate the choice into a coherent purpose and a small set of strategic goals. Examine whether responsibilities, decision rights and organisational structure will help people deliver them.
Practical output: A strategy statement and proposed accountability structure.
Sequence the work around available money, skills and management attention. Identify cross-functional dependencies, assign owners and distinguish early experiments from commitments that are expensive to reverse.
Practical output: A resourced roadmap with milestones and dependencies.
Use force-field analysis to examine support and resistance. Compare change approaches and select interventions that address the reasons people might struggle with the proposed direction.
Practical output: A change plan with named interventions and owners.
Build a review that checks implementation and strategic effect. Define measures, sources and responsibility, then decide when a variance needs corrective action and when the strategy itself needs reconsideration.
Practical output: A review dashboard and escalation criteria.
Present the proposal to a challenging peer board. Answer questions about rejected options, assumptions and delivery capacity, then revise the argument and identify the evidence that still needs strengthening.
Practical output: A revised strategy report and personal improvement plan.
Module 2 · 14 sessions · 28 live hours
Mandatory OTHM unit · 20 credits
Examine how your leadership affects the decisions, behaviour and confidence of others. Practise explaining a difficult choice and responding to informed challenge.
Examine a decision that cannot be solved by one manager issuing instructions. Clarify the relationship between leadership, management and accountability, and identify the people whose contribution makes the strategy possible.
Practical output: A leadership challenge statement and stakeholder context.
Compare explanations based on personal qualities and observable behaviour. Test them against contrasting leaders in the case, asking what each explanation helps you understand and what it leaves unresolved.
Practical output: A comparative analysis with strengths and limitations.
Change the team’s experience, urgency or task uncertainty and reconsider the leadership response. Examine why an approach that is useful in one setting may frustrate progress in another.
Practical output: A context-based leadership response matrix.
Explore the balance between clear expectations, reliable follow-through and a compelling future direction. Assess how leaders can mobilise effort without making promises the organisation cannot support.
Practical output: A justified approach to leading a strategic initiative.
Investigate how leaders form different relationships across a team. Consider access, consistency and credibility, and test whether a claim of authenticity explains how people actually experience a leader’s behaviour.
Practical output: A relationship review and an improvement commitment.
Distinguish a collection of individual contributors from a team with interdependent work. Examine purpose, roles, norms and coordination, and decide what the leader should do to support collective performance.
Practical output: A team effectiveness diagnosis and working agreement.
Map influence beyond the organisation chart. Explore expertise, relationships and informal groups, then consider how to involve influential colleagues while keeping the decision process clear and accountable.
Practical output: An influence map and engagement approach.
Rehearse a conversation in which two functions disagree about a strategic priority. Surface the underlying concern, invite challenge and distinguish a useful disagreement from behaviour that prevents progress.
Practical output: A conversation plan and observer feedback record.
Examine a performance change and compare possible explanations. Decide what evidence would support a leadership contribution, while considering resources, market conditions, team capability and measurement quality.
Practical output: A leadership-to-performance argument with limitations.
Compare stated values with decisions about time, rewards and tolerated behaviour. Identify a contradiction in the case and design a leadership action that makes the intended culture more credible.
Practical output: A culture diagnosis and specific leadership action.
Work through a choice that creates different consequences for employees, customers and the organisation. Explain the principles, information and accountability needed to make and communicate a defensible decision.
Practical output: A reasoned decision note and stakeholder explanation.
Coordinate an initiative involving several teams with different priorities. Sequence conversations, decisions and support, and adapt the response when feedback reveals a barrier the original plan overlooked.
Practical output: A cross-team leadership and change plan.
Review feedback alongside a specific example of your own practice or the case leader’s behaviour. Select one achievable development priority and define an action and review method that can reveal progress.
Practical output: A development experiment with evidence and review points.
Present your evaluation and recommendation to peers with competing viewpoints. Respond to a changed condition, explain the limits of the preferred approach and improve the final argument after discussion.
Practical output: A revised leadership evaluation and next-step commitment.
Module 3 · 14 sessions · 28 live hours
Mandatory OTHM unit · 20 credits
Identify the people and capabilities a strategy depends on. Design a workforce response that connects recruitment, development, management practice and evaluation.
Trace a business objective to the work and capabilities it requires. Examine the assumptions connecting people practices with results, and distinguish an HR activity from the outcome it is intended to support.
Practical output: A strategy-to-people contribution map.
Follow a staffing decision through operations, finance and customer delivery. Identify competing priorities, shared information needs and the decisions that require joint ownership rather than an isolated HR response.
Practical output: A cross-functional decision and responsibility map.
Translate a proposed service change into roles, skills, availability and management capacity. Explore how technology, customer expectations and delivery commitments alter the type of work before estimating headcount.
Practical output: A workforce-demand model with explicit assumptions.
Review available workforce information for definitions, gaps and quality. Examine skills, experience, deployment and likely movement, keeping individual information proportionate to the purpose of the analysis.
Practical output: A workforce evidence register and capability profile.
Compare the current position with more than one demand scenario. Distinguish an immediate staffing shortage from a longer-term capability gap and identify which assumptions could change the recommended response.
Practical output: A prioritised gap analysis with scenario triggers.
Compare ways of meeting the need, including recruitment, learning, partnership and changes to work design. Assess lead time, cost, capacity and the management effort required by each option.
Practical output: An options appraisal and phased workforce plan.
Examine how recruitment, development, reward and performance policies interact. Identify conflicting signals and consider how employees may experience the proposed approach across different stages of their employment.
Practical output: A policy-coherence review and improvement priorities.
Identify the jurisdictions and policy areas affected by a proposed change. Frame questions for current specialist advice and consider fairness, employee voice, social responsibility and longer-term workforce consequences.
Practical output: A policy review brief with advice and consultation needs.
Investigate how organisational design and informal expectations affect the workforce plan. Test whether managers have the authority, skills and incentives to implement the proposed people practices.
Practical output: A culture and structure impact assessment.
Investigate a case of declining performance and avoid assuming a single cause. Compare support, role clarity, development, workload and reward responses, with measures appropriate to the problem.
Practical output: A coordinated performance and retention proposal.
Sequence actions around budgets, recruitment lead times and operational capacity. Allocate HR and line-manager responsibilities, prepare communication and identify dependencies that could delay implementation.
Practical output: A costed implementation roadmap and ownership matrix.
Choose measures that connect the plan with organisational and employee outcomes. Examine definitions, denominators and reporting frequency, and test whether an attractive indicator could encourage an unhelpful behaviour.
Practical output: A people-strategy dashboard with measurement notes.
Use new case evidence to review the strategy. Compare expected and observed results, investigate other explanations and decide whether to adjust an action, a target or the original workforce assumption.
Practical output: A review paper and revised people priorities.
Present the integrated recommendation to HR, finance and operational stakeholders. Defend trade-offs, address employee consequences and revise the plan after challenge so its implementation requirements are clear.
Practical output: A completed people-strategy pack and improvement record.
Module 4 · 14 sessions · 28 live hours
Selected optional OTHM unit · 20 credits
Make the economics of a proposal visible. Compare financial performance, funding and investment choices while showing the assumptions behind the numbers.
Meet the fictional Meridian leadership team and examine two rival growth proposals. Identify the decision, who can authorise it and which missing figures could change the answer.
Practical output: A decision brief and financial information request.
Trace a service contract through income, assets, liabilities and cash. Explain why the same transaction appears differently across reports and why reported profit may not fund the next payment.
Practical output: An annotated financial-statement walkthrough.
Calculate a small set of profitability, liquidity and efficiency measures. Investigate a misleading year-on-year comparison and identify the contextual explanation a manager should seek before acting.
Practical output: A performance commentary with comparison limits.
Separate costs that move with volume from committed expenditure and opportunity costs. Challenge a proposal to close a service line using only its allocated overhead.
Practical output: A relevant-cost worksheet and capacity recommendation.
Compare absorption, marginal and activity-based views of Meridian’s delivery work. Explore which activities cause cost and how a different allocation could alter a pricing discussion.
Practical output: A costing comparison and justified improvement.
Connect sales assumptions, staffing, delivery capacity and cash in a compact master budget. Identify a disagreement between departmental plans and reconcile it before the figures reach the board.
Practical output: A linked budget with an assumptions register.
Review an apparent favourable spending variance alongside missed service commitments. Separate volume effects from controllable performance and consider how targets influence reporting and behaviour.
Practical output: A variance explanation and corrective-action proposal.
Model the gap between paying employees and receiving customer payments. Test delayed receipts and staged customer billing, explaining the operational consequences of each response.
Practical output: A short-term cash forecast and working-capital note.
Compare illustrative internal funding, borrowing and equity options for the case company. Examine timing, repayment commitments, flexibility and control before proposing a fit with the planned investment.
Practical output: A funding options matrix and recommendation.
Convert the competing proposals into cash-flow schedules. Identify incremental expenditure, timing, residual assumptions and double counting; distinguish the appraisal model from an accounting profit forecast.
Practical output: Two traceable project cash-flow schedules.
Apply payback, accounting return, net present value and internal rate of return to supplied case data. Investigate why measures may favour different projects and explain the decision implications.
Practical output: An appraisal comparison with calculation checks.
Change adoption speed, delivery costs and payment timing. Separate a calculation error from a weak forecast and identify the assumptions that deserve investigation before approval.
Practical output: A scenario comparison and evidence priorities.
Present an affordable recommendation that considers delivery capability as well as modelled returns. Respond to a challenge from a fictional finance director and revise the conditions attached to approval.
Practical output: An investment paper and response to challenge.
Reconcile calculations, commentary and sources across the case. Explain a changed judgement, identify any missing assessment evidence and plan how the investment would be reviewed after implementation.
Practical output: A revised evidence pack and submission plan.
Module 5 · 14 sessions · 28 live hours
Selected optional OTHM unit · 20 credits
Choose which customers to serve and the value you intend to provide. Connect market evidence with positioning, delivery capability and measures of commercial performance.
Examine Meridian’s competing requests for growth and define what the organisation needs marketing to achieve. Compare a proposed activity with the strategic choice it is intended to support.
Practical output: A marketing decision brief and initial questions.
Investigate a supplied market update and distinguish a relevant change from background noise. Assess competitors, substitutes and wider pressures without assuming that a familiar framework provides the answer.
Practical output: A focused external analysis with implications.
Interview fictional sales, delivery and finance stakeholders. Compare the customer promise with available skills, capacity and service processes, then identify where internal assumptions conflict.
Practical output: An organisational capability and stakeholder map.
Review sample interviews, enquiry records and website observations. Test whether the available evidence represents the intended customer and decide what further enquiry would reduce uncertainty.
Practical output: An evidence-quality review and research priorities.
Translate the diagnosis into a small number of measurable marketing objectives. Explain the baseline, timing and organisational responsibility, and challenge an attractive target with no delivery capacity behind it.
Practical output: A justified objective and measurement sheet.
Group potential customers by needs, buying circumstances and service expectations. Compare alternative segmentation approaches and investigate whether the proposed differences would change a business decision.
Practical output: Candidate segments with supporting evidence.
Compare three segments against access, attractiveness and Meridian’s ability to serve them. Explain the work the business would stop or defer if it concentrates on one priority group.
Practical output: A target-market recommendation and trade-off record.
Draft competing positioning options for the selected audience. Test whether customers would recognise the benefit and whether the company can substantiate its promise through delivery evidence.
Practical output: A positioning statement and proof requirements.
Map the brand’s attributes, benefits and intended meaning. Look for inconsistency between sales language and the customer experience, then propose a specific development priority.
Practical output: A brand evaluation and improvement brief.
Shape a service offer around the chosen customer’s priorities. Consider how its maturity affects marketing decisions and identify the operational support required before making a new promise.
Practical output: An offer design and lifecycle rationale.
Compare ways of pricing and delivering the service. Test how channel choices, convenience and sales support interact, then explain the implications for the intended market position.
Practical output: An integrated pricing and access proposal.
Plan messages and digital touchpoints for different buying stages. Choose where human follow-up adds value and check whether each claim is supported by the service the customer will receive.
Practical output: A communication and relationship plan.
Allocate ownership and resources across the proposed actions. Select measures that show customer response and delivery quality, and agree what evidence would trigger a change of direction.
Practical output: An implementation roadmap and review framework.
Present the complete argument to a simulated leadership team. Answer a challenge about the target segment, revise weak evidence and check how the preparation work supports the issued assessment brief.
Practical output: A revised strategy pack and submission plan.
Module 6 · 14 sessions · 28 live hours
Mandatory OTHM unit · 20 credits
Design an investigation that can answer a worthwhile business question. Explain your sources, methods, ethical choices and the limits of what the research could establish.
Examine a fictional consultancy whose repeat bookings have declined. Separate observations from possible explanations and identify the management decision that better evidence could support.
Practical output: A problem statement and a map of unanswered questions.
Compare questions about customer experience, service quality and purchasing decisions. Narrow the population and period, then check that each objective contributes to the central question.
Practical output: A bounded question, aim and coherent objectives.
Build search terms, record where you searched and distinguish research evidence from commentary. Compare relevance, publication context and the methods behind apparently persuasive findings.
Practical output: A search record and an initial evidence table.
Group the literature by competing explanations rather than by author. Identify agreements, contradictions and gaps, and explain which ideas could help investigate the booking problem.
Practical output: A themed review structure and a critical comparison.
Explore how different views of knowledge affect what you ask and how you interpret an answer. Compare a measurement-led approach with an enquiry into customer experiences.
Practical output: A justified approach linked to the research question.
Compare a survey, interview study, case study and mixed design for the same problem. Consider access and time as well as the kind of conclusion each could support.
Practical output: A design comparison and a reasoned selection.
Define whose experience matters, who is reachable and who might be missed. Explain how recruitment and non-response could shape the evidence rather than treating availability as representativeness.
Practical output: A proposed sample, access plan and limitations note.
Draft interview prompts or survey items that match the objectives. Identify leading language, ambiguous terms and questions that ask respondents to recall more than they reasonably can.
Practical output: A draft instrument and question-to-objective map.
Plan how participants will understand the study and choose whether to contribute. Examine the effect of a manager recruiting colleagues, and specify practical handling of the information collected.
Practical output: Participant information and a proportionate data-handling plan.
Rehearse the proposed instrument with a classroom example. Record misunderstandings, revise the wording and explain which changes improve the study without changing its original purpose.
Practical output: A pilot review and a revised instrument.
Use a small illustrative dataset to examine distributions, missing entries and group comparisons. Match the proposed analysis to the question and avoid inferring a cause from an association alone.
Practical output: An analysis plan with example tables and interpretation limits.
Code a short fictional interview extract, compare alternative interpretations and look for disagreement. Explain how notes and quotations would support a theme without treating frequency as the only measure of significance.
Practical output: A coding example and a proposed analytical process.
Check that the literature, question, sample, instruments and analysis describe the same investigation. Plan milestones, review points and a feasible alternative if access becomes restricted.
Practical output: A complete draft proposal with a delivery timetable.
Present the design, answer questions about rejected alternatives and revise weak links. Distinguish the contribution the study might make from findings that would require actual investigation.
Practical output: A revised proposal and response-to-feedback record.
Module 7 · 14 sessions · 28 live hours
KBC enrichment · no additional regulated credits
Bring the subjects together around an executive decision. Reconcile your market, financial, workforce and implementation proposals before presenting them for challenge.
A fictional professional-services business is considering expansion into a new market. Clarify what approval is being requested, why the decision matters now and which boundaries the recommendation must respect.
Practical output: A decision brief and initial success criteria.
Revisit evidence about the organisation and its environment. Distinguish an attractive market story from a capability the business can demonstrate, and identify the strongest challenge to expansion.
Practical output: A concise diagnosis and an assumptions register.
Develop options including a staged entry, partnership and improvement of the existing business. Agree comparison criteria before scoring options and explain trade-offs that a single total score could hide.
Practical output: An option comparison with an initial recommendation.
Specify the customer problem, buying context and proposed service promise. Identify the evidence needed to test willingness to buy and whether the organisation can deliver consistently.
Practical output: A proposition and a focused evidence-gathering plan.
Map how the service would be sold, delivered and supported. Examine handovers, supplier dependencies and decision rights, then identify where the proposed model could create delays or inconsistent quality.
Practical output: An operating outline and interface decisions.
Translate expected demand into roles, capacity and development needs. Compare recruitment, partnerships and redeployment, including the time required before people can perform the planned work.
Practical output: A workforce and capability plan linked to demand.
Connect volumes, prices, staffing and delivery costs in a transparent spreadsheet. Separate profit from cash timing and explain when the business would need funding to support the proposal.
Practical output: A checked financial model and funding profile.
Change demand, conversion, cost and ramp-up assumptions. Examine which variations alter the decision, and decide whether a small pilot could resolve uncertainty before a larger commitment.
Practical output: A scenario comparison and proposed decision thresholds.
Define the improvements expected, the starting position and the person accountable for reviewing each one. Distinguish completing launch activities from achieving customer or organisational benefits.
Practical output: A benefits review plan with practical measures.
Explore how the proposal affects current teams and customers. Prepare a difficult conversation about changed priorities, and select participation and communication approaches suited to the people involved.
Practical output: An adoption plan and a leadership practice reflection.
Bring the workstreams into a realistic roadmap. Identify dependencies, capacity conflicts and decision gates, then state what evidence is needed before moving into each larger commitment.
Practical output: An implementation roadmap with owners and review points.
Test whether staffing costs match the workforce plan, marketing promises match delivery capacity and milestones match the funding profile. Resolve contradictions and make remaining uncertainty visible.
Practical output: An integrated draft pack and consistency review.
Give a concise recommendation supported by the detailed case. Answer questions about alternatives, downside exposure and responsibility, and distinguish what you can evidence from what needs further work.
Practical output: A board-style presentation and challenge record.
Respond to the panel’s strongest objection and update the proposal. Reflect on how your judgement developed, then identify a useful application and review point in your own professional practice.
Practical output: A final decision pack and personal development commitment.
Apply the learning
For the learning activities, consider a fictional technical services business deciding whether to introduce an AI-enabled service. Customers want a faster response, but the organisation has limited specialist capacity and uncertain demand. Work through the decision from different perspectives, then reconcile the findings in the studio. You might recommend a controlled pilot, a partnership, a different service or a decision to defer. The quality of the reasoning matters more than selecting the most ambitious option. This illustrative case supports practice; formal assignments follow the issued briefs.
Use anonymised, public or suitable synthetic material where workplace information is confidential. The issued assessment brief confirms the required evidence.
The OTHM diploma is awarded after the six required units are achieved through the applicable centre assessment and OTHM verification process. The KBC studio has separate completion requirements and adds no regulated credits. Any KBC course certificate records its own learning outcome and does not replace the OTHM award.
The table separates the KBC learning package from the regulated award. Qualification number 603/2181/7 requires four mandatory units and two optional units. KBC selects Strategic Financial Management and Strategic Marketing for this route. Each of those six units is worth 20 credits; the studio does not create a seventh credit-bearing OTHM unit.
| KBC module | Award relationship | Live teaching |
|---|---|---|
| Strategic Management | Mandatory OTHM unit · 20 credits | 14 sessions · 28 hours |
| Strategic Leadership | Mandatory OTHM unit · 20 credits | 14 sessions · 28 hours |
| Strategic Human Resource Management | Mandatory OTHM unit · 20 credits | 14 sessions · 28 hours |
| Strategic Financial Management | Selected optional OTHM unit · 20 credits | 14 sessions · 28 hours |
| Strategic Marketing | Selected optional OTHM unit · 20 credits | 14 sessions · 28 hours |
| Advanced Business Research Methods | Mandatory OTHM unit · 20 credits | 14 sessions · 28 hours |
| KBC Applied Strategy and Leadership Studio | KBC enrichment · no additional regulated credits | 14 sessions · 28 hours |
The diploma specification gives 600 Guided Learning Hours and 1,200 hours of Total Qualification Time. The 196 live seminar hours across this seven-module offer are a teaching component, not a replacement for that workload. Further supervised learning, reading, preparation and assessment must be planned, alongside the studio’s additional activities.
Choose a timetable you can sustain. Seven modules taught consecutively at one session per week require 98 teaching weeks, with breaks and assessment periods arranged around them. If an intake overlaps modules, you will have more than one weekly session during those periods. We confirm the actual calendar before enrolment instead of treating a published duration on another delivery route as a guarantee for this one.
Before starting, map a normal working week and a demanding one. Identify time for live participation, a reading block, assignment development and recovery. Agree with your employer which organisational examples you can use and what study support is available. Review the plan when modules or workplace responsibilities change.
Use a short reading or diagnostic task to identify what you understand and where the topic becomes difficult. Bring a specific question to the live class so discussion can address your learning need.
During the live session, apply the idea to a case, compare interpretations and explain the implications. Practise a manageable part of the eventual assignment instead of collecting disconnected definitions.
After class, develop the output and record what feedback changed. Keep drafts, calculation assumptions and source notes organised so your final submission shows a clear line of reasoning.
A useful portfolio shows development over time. Keep an early recommendation, the challenge it received and a revised version. Explain whether the change came from better evidence, a different interpretation or a more realistic understanding of delivery. This makes your learning visible in a way that a polished final presentation alone cannot.
Practise explaining a recommendation to colleagues outside your specialism. Bring financial, customer and people evidence into the same conversation, and make the trade-offs visible before asking others to commit.
Use the learning to question a proposed expansion, new service or operating change. Test whether the business can fund, staff and deliver the promise, then decide what evidence would justify the next commitment.
Agree a meaningful development challenge and opportunities to apply the learning. Review the quality of recommendations and the learner’s response to feedback, alongside academic progress; a qualification alone is not proof of business results.
A Level 7 diploma and an MBA are different qualifications. Diploma holders may be able to apply for a university top-up, subject to that university’s entry rules, recognition of the selected units and further study and assessment. The studio is not a university dissertation, and neither module attendance nor diploma completion guarantees university admission.
For an initial conversation, bring your CV, qualifications, professional aims and preferred time zone. Describe the decisions you make today and the responsibility you want to prepare for. The team can then discuss eligibility, study readiness, an appropriate case and the timetable.
Your written offer should identify the awarding-body registration arrangement, teaching and assessment included, total fees, payment schedule and any separately charged services. If you apply for support or funding, obtain a written decision for your own circumstances. Discuss accessibility, digital access and competing study commitments before accepting a place.
The KBC learning package has seven modules, each with 14 two-hour weekly live sessions. Together they provide 98 sessions and 196 live teaching hours. The diploma page now includes the complete route, with a separate detailed page for every module.
OTHM’s diploma requires four mandatory units and two selected options, totalling 120 credits. KBC’s seventh module is the Applied Strategy and Leadership Studio. It is additional KBC learning and carries no additional regulated credits.
No. Those are the live teaching hours for this seven-module offer. OTHM specifies 600 guided learning hours and 1,200 total qualification hours for the diploma. Your delivery plan must include the remaining forms of learning and assessment, as well as the studio’s separate commitment.
Each module has one two-hour session per teaching week. If modules run consecutively, there are 98 teaching weeks before breaks. If your agreed timetable runs modules in parallel, the weekly contact time increases. The intake calendar confirms this before enrolment.
Teaching is delivered through Kent Business College in the UK. The regulated qualification is awarded by OTHM following successful unit assessment and verification. The KBC studio has separate completion requirements.
OTHM provides an admission route for mature learners with management experience, subject to the centre’s review. The usual academic route is a related honours degree, UK Level 6 diploma or equivalent. Minimum age and English-language conditions also apply.
Discuss a suitable case with the programme team. Use authorised, anonymised, public or synthetic material for teaching activities and follow the formal assignment requirements. An employer’s confidential information should only be used with appropriate permission.
No. A university MBA top-up is a separate application and programme with its own eligibility, fees, study and assessment. Check the intended university’s requirements before relying on a progression route.
Further reading and programme references · reviewed 18 October 2026
