Manchester Metropolitan University Business School scooped the coveted Best Innovation Strategy Award – in association with Kortext, at the world-renowned Association of MBA’s (AMBA) and Business Graduates Association (BGA) Excellence Awards 2024. Learn more about their winning imitative Innovation in employability – a strengths approach to personal and professional development in this webinar.
Manchester Met Business School welcomes 10,000 students annually, with 51% being the first generation in their family to attend university, and overall 65% from diverse backgrounds. To enable our student body to effectively realise their career ambitions, we partnered with Cappfinity to support students to recognise and foreground their personal strengths in an individual skills profile, when developing their career plans and confidence in their abilities. This approach differs from the standard university career planning processes and has been transformational for our student body, with a 67% increase in students being ‘career ready’ at the start of their final year.
We’ll share how our Strengths approach addresses student employability outcomes from a totally different angle than the standard university careers readiness ethos, by instilling confidence in each student’s unique set of strengths. In doing so, we are developing our student’s workplace skills and confidence in what they excel at doing.
Emma Holt
Emma Holt is a Senior Lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University Business School.
Emma co-leads Continuing Professional Development, a core unit, through which, using strengths, employability is embedded into the curriculum and key employability skills are taught. The unit is delivered to Level 5 students in Accounting & Finance and Banking & Finance and is one of three Professional and Continuing Development units spanning Levels 4-6. Emma has been part of the team creating and delivering these units since they began three years ago.
Emma is a former business leader, solicitor (non-practising) and experienced non-executive board member. Emma joined Manchester Metropolitan University in 2019, where she also is the Programme Leader for the Global Online MBA and leads units in Business Law and Strategy and Leadership.
Emma cares deeply about helping students prepare for and attain the graduate roles they aspire to.
Hannah Holmes
Professor Hannah Holmes is Dean of Business School at Manchester Metropolitan University.
Hannah is passionate about helping drive and deliver change which makes a positive contribution to society, particularly amongst communities which face significant barriers. Her commitment to innovation is education is evidenced by a strong track-record of improving student outcomes in graduate employment, continuation, and satisfaction.