| Program start date | Application deadline |
| 2023-09-01 | 2023-07-09 |
| 2024-01-01 | 2023-11-26 |
Program Overview
Course overview
Foundation year Work placement
Pairing business expertise with technology can be a powerful combination in a business oriented career. Business Technology allows you to identify business challenges, find technological solutions, manage technology projects and services, build defences against cyber attacks, and analyse business data.
This is reinforced by a good understanding of modern professional business practices and the inherent security, ethical, legal, social, and professional issues when using digital technologies. A fundamental activity within business technology is analysing existing business processes and bringing about improvements using technology.
The skills you gain are highly sought after by employers and build a strong foundation for working in industry. You develop your consulting skills to advise clients on how to best utilise technology to meet their business objectives, overcome problems and increase productivity.
Top reasons to study this course at Teesside:
British Computer Society (BCS) academic membership:
get free BCS membership to accelerate your career path with CV builder tools, e-learning courses, mentorship programmes, jobs boards and volunteering opportunities.Industry links:
work on live industry briefs, competitions and hackathons with companies including Cisco, Cubic Transportation Systems, Sage, TUI, Atombank, HMRC and Waterstons.State-of-the-art facilities:
learn in industry-standard computing labs with specialist equipment used to undertake development projects and build innovative prototypes.Career-ready:
our ExpoSeries of events allow you to showcase your skills to industry professionals who are seeking to recruit new and rising talent.
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Program Outline
Course details
Course structure
Year 1 core modules
Business Enterprise
This module will inspire you to think about entering the workplace once you have completed your studies. The module is delivered as an interactive learning experience which will enable you to develop an enterprising mind-set and help to identify some of the skills and attributes you already possess. The module content will encourage you to begin to think about your personal career aspirations, whilst addressing potential gaps linked to your knowledge, skills and experience. You will be encouraged to think in an enterprising fashion; learn new approaches to adapt and enhance your individual style. You will have the opportunity to work independently and as a member of a group by participating in personal challenges and group projects, and will learn to understand the importance of networking. Furthermore, you will have the opportunity to hear from and to question experienced external practitioners.
Business Finance
You gain an understanding of the way in which accounting is used in the external evaluation of organisations and develops the ability to use accounting and finance techniques in decision making, control, management and adding value to performance.
Information Security and Cybercrime
You cover a range of issues relating to information and computer security, including systematic approaches to managing security risks, elementary cryptography, how computers are used in the execution of crime, and how such crimes are investigated.
Rapid Application Development
You will learn rapid development applications. It will give you experience of analysing, designing and building web-database applications using a tools-driven approach.
Responsive Web Development
You develop responsive websites utilising an appropriate mark-up and style sheet language (HTML5 and CSS3). You are introduced to a web development lifecycle. You learn how web-based analysis and design techniques can be used early in the lifecycle and how project management and quality assurance/quality control techniques can be applied throughout the webcycle.
Systems Design and Databases
Successful, robust and user-friendly systems or applications begin with a requirements analysis and detailed design. You are introduced to the concepts and techniques of systems analysis and design, enabling you to break down and simplify complex systems and represent them visually using industry-standard approaches such as Unified Modelling Language (UML). In industry, the resulting models are used to communicate designs to developers and stakeholders prior to implementation.
You learn to design and implement fully normalised relational databases as part of an information system. Using data modelling techniques you define how the system stores data and interacts with it. You implement your design using Structured Query Language (SQL): Data Definition Language for creating tables, and Data Manipulation Language for accessing the data.
You develop professional practice and transferrable skills essential for industry, including project management."
Year 2 core modules
Digital Marketing in Practice
This module describes and evaluates the ways in which an organisation can deliver the online customer experience, and the importance of the online presence to develop and support branding and customer service objectives. The stages, including analysis of customer needs, design of the website structure and layout and creating the site will be covered. The module examines the development of supporting technologies for digital marketing and examines digital channels and their suitability for inclusion for effective integrated on and offline marketing programmes and campaigns. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), customer acquisition and retention, display advertising, advergaming, mobile marketing, email marketing, viral marketing, online PR, affiliate marketing, social media, video and e-tailing are all explored in detail. The module will also consider ways in which digital channel performance can be monitored, evaluated and improved.
Enterprise Resource Planning with SAP
Global Digital Business
This module aims to convey an understanding of the diversity of available technologies and approaches to exploiting new business opportunities through the use of advanced contemporary technologies. You expand your understanding of a range of e-based technologies and the use of this technology in supporting business operations, including a consideration of e-commerce, e-customer relationship management, and e-marketing.
IS Developer
A practical module where you undertake the development of an IT based project usually in the form of an approved Web/Database System, taking into consideration appropriate legal issues and professional ethics. You will be placed in an active learning environment to enable development of group working, project process skills, and an identified product by a given deadline.
Working in small teams, you will take responsibility for determining project aims, objectives, roles, tasks, deliverables, schedules and documentation. The work will culminate with the teams providing a group report and a group presentation of the product or application to a panel of academics and/or industry experts. You will also be required to submit an individual report to reflect on the project process as a whole, review the ethical and legal issues considered, evaluate group members’ performance, your own strengths and weaknesses and relate those to their future career aspirations.
Relational and NoSQL Databases
You develop your ability to design and implement database applications to meet business needs. A case study is used to follow the system development life cycle, and you develop a server database application from inception to implementation for a real world scenario.
The module investigates the issues and technologies associated with implementing and supporting databases and the services that are needed to maintain and access a repository of data. Investigations are undertaken in a number of areas including data modelling, data management and approaches that support the modelling and visualisation of data for a range of use views.
Optional work placement year
Work placement
You have the option to spend one year in industry learning and developing your skills. We encourage and support you with applying for a placement, job hunting and networking.
You gain experience favoured by graduate recruiters and develop your technical skillset. You also obtain the transferable skills required in any professional environment, including communication, negotiation, teamwork, leadership, organisation, confidence, self-reliance, problem-solving, being able to work under pressure, and commercial awareness.
Many employers view a placement as a year-long interview, therefore placements are increasingly becoming an essential part of an organisation's pre-selection strategy in their graduate recruitment process. Benefits include:
· improved job prospects
· enhanced employment skills and improved career progression opportunities
· a higher starting salary than your full-time counterparts
· a better degree classification
· a richer CV
· a year's salary before completing your degree
· experience of workplace culture
· the opportunity to design and base your final-year project within a working environment.
If you are unable to secure a work placement with an employer, then you simply continue on a course without the work placement.
Final-year core modules
Business Intelligence
You learn how to design and implement big data solutions to meet business needs by using a case study to follow the system development lifecycle. You then develop a plausible big data solution from inception to implementation for a real-world scenario.
You investigate the issues and technologies associated with implementing and supporting large scale databases and the services that are needed to maintain and access a repository of data. You undertake investigations in areas including big data, data warehouses, integrating legacy data, data management and approaches that support the modelling and visualisation of data for a range of use views.
Client-focused Business Solutions
Technical consultancy is widely used within industry. Close collaboration between the client and the consultants allows the design and implementation of information technology projects to be made based on informed decisions.
You work in close collaboration with your client(s) by taking on the role of the IT consultant as part of a team. You have the opportunity to go through the full consultancy cycle and manage your client’s project from the start to completion using industry standard methodologies such as PRINCE2®.
Utilising and developing previously acquired technical skills and knowledge, you research industry-standard tools such as open source content management systems (CMS) that allow you to advise and influence your clients appropriately on the most suitable platform to use in their organisation. Client relationships are key as you are heavily involved in client-facing activities in order to collect data and present findings.
You widen your experience of working as part of a team and grow your understanding of the theories underpinning effective teamwork.
Computing Project
You complete a large scale piece of work, under the supervision of an academic staff member. You produce a substantial artefact relating to the computing field, and complete your report and viva consisting of a presentation, demonstration and discussion of the artefact.
You are guided to develop an appropriate sense of work-discipline coupled with a professional outlook. You take responsibility for the planning and execution of an extended piece of work including the consideration of associated legal, social, ethical and professional issues. You are able to explore in depth a chosen subject area, and thereby demonstrate your ability to analyse, synthesise, and creatively apply what has already been studied on the programme while demonstrating critical and evaluative skills and professional awareness.
Information Governance
You identify the goals of information governance, from protecting the needs of the stakeholder to ensuring the transparency of processes and how these link together to support data governance principles such as integrity, transparency, auditability, accountability, standardization and change management.
You study a range of governance topics including law, regulations, and compliance; security governance and risk management; security for cloud architectures and issues around 3rd party data storage.
Sustainability, Strategy and Society
You gain knowledge and experience of business in society and how to implement responsible leadership for organisational sustainability. You will review the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and work with stakeholders, analysing the macro environment and providing evidence-based solutions to overcome a problem in society.
Modules offered may vary.
How you learn
You learn through lectures and practical lab sessions. Lectures teach the principles while practical sessions allow you to put these principles into practice. You undertake a piece of work for several weeks, building a deeper understanding of the subject. In your final year you also undertake a personal project which integrates the work you have studied in previous years.
How you are assessed
A variety of assessment methods are used to build on the work you undertake in class. An in-course assessment often consists of a practical exercise and an associated report helping you to develop both technical and business skills.
Our Disability Services team provide an inclusive and empowering learning environment and have specialist staff to support disabled students access any additional tailored resources needed. If you have a specific learning difficulty, mental health condition, autism, sensory impairment, chronic health condition or any other disability please contact a Disability Services as early as possible.
Find out more about our disability services
Find out more about financial support
Find out more about our course related costs
Employability
Career opportunities
The combination of academic study and intensive practical work prepares you for specialist roles such as systems analysis, IT consultant, data analytics, digital business executive, user support and systems development.
Our computing students go into a range of careers, both nationally and globally, in industries including power, avionics and pharmaceuticals, and for companies including Cisco, HMRC, Accenture and Durham Police.
Other course routes
Foundation year
Study this course with a foundation year if you need additional preparation or if you don't have sufficient grades to join Year 1.
BSc (Hons) Business Technology (with Foundation Year)
Work placement
Study this course with an optional work placement year, at no extra cost. Alongside this, you can gain valuable experience and engagement with the sector through our shorter work placements, internships and work experience opportunities.
Work placements
