Making the right choices when applying for university can be daunting.
But if you dream of a career in business, law or accounting, you need look no further than Salford Business School.
Based on Salford's green campus and just five minutes away from Manchester City Centre, Salford Business School is at the heart of the dynamic Greater Manchester business and digital sector.
As a small business charter accredited school, it is proud to work in partnership with a wide range of regional business, from SMEs to multi-nationals, supporting growth and productivity in the area - and is committed to being a force for good, both within the community and on a global scale.
The business school's business, law and accounting degrees prepare the university's students for a fulfilling and successful professional career, with undergraduate and postgraduate courses providing opportunities to gain real-world knowledge and develop future-focussed skills in a supportive and inclusive environment.
For the young professionals who walk away from Salford Business School with any type of degree or professional accreditation, the sky truly is the limit.
BSc Business Studies with Financial Management graduate Nilima Begum had always dreamt of running her own business, and also wanted to work in banking - eventually taking a step towards investment banking.
Nilima was delighted to be offered a place at the university.
"In the first two years of my degree, I studied general business management, which meant I learnt a lot about the different aspects of business and what it takes to run one," Nilima said.
"Then, in my final year, we had the option to carry on doing general business or specialise in a specific area, which is when and why I chose financial management.
"I have always loved numbers because the logical side of me knows there is a right and wrong answer, and I really enjoy the financial aspects of business.
"When I graduated in 2013, I was lucky enough to get my first job at RBS as a complaints handler; I was there nearly three years, eventually leaving in 2016 after doing various roles in personal banking. This helped me build my knowledge and experience within the sector.
"My current job title is business development support executive at Aldermore Bank PLC, more specifically within invoice finance. I work in the sales team, supporting the business development managers with new business.
"The best part of my job is being able to help struggling businesses get the cashflow they need, and learning about the different businesses that are out there. No two businesses are the same despite them being in the same sector.
"Salford Business School gave me the confidence and experience behind the theoretical knowledge of businesses, as well as the financial side.
"They helped me to speak confidently and purposefully in front of large crowds, which I believe has helped me in interviews and generally being able to speak to people on the phone.
"Whilst at university I felt I had a lot of support from tutors. They were always available when I needed them, and helped me during assignments and exams.
"Salford Business School helped give me the foundation I needed to go into a job as well as help build my confidence as a person.
"When I graduated, I knew exactly where I wanted to be. Without my degree, I wouldn’t have known exactly the direction I wanted to go in.
"I still use my theoretical and practical knowledge of businesses even now during my working life, to look at financial accounts and to speak to different businesses about how they run. Practically running a business is very different from an idea of how we think a real business should be run."
During their time at Salford Business School, students are encouraged to be curious, adaptable and confident, ready to meet the digital, ethical and sustainability challenges of the modern day.
Associate dean academic of quality and enhancement at Salford Business School, Dr Claire Hookham, believes all students should be curious about the world around them, as it helps to inspire them as they embark upon their careers.
She said: "It's such a central ethos for our school.
"We're innovative, forward-thinking and curious. By building confidence in our students and nurturing the resilience they have, we find our students become really curious about other things.
"We see that curiosity and we really encourage both our students and our staff to be curious and say: "Look, if there's a thread you want to pull on because you think somebody else might be interested in it, let's pull on it together and see what we can create."
The school's business, accounting and law courses are designed to prepare students for the real world of work.
Whilst students will learn theory in a conventional way, the same theory will be put into practice on real-world projects, work placements, case studies and challenges set by the school's industry partners.
The university prepares its students for a fulfilling life and professional career, with courses developed in close partnership with real business leaders.
Student employability is at the heart of Salford Business School, which means that, whether a student's path is business, management, accounting, finance or law, they will develop the key skills and personal qualities that real employers look for.
The university empowers its diverse community of students by inspiring curiosity, building confidence and nurturing resilience to support every individual’s personal and professional journey.
All academic programmes at Salford Business School equip students with the skills, attributes and aptitudes to thrive in an uncertain and complex world, including:
- An entrepreneurial mindset characterised by flexibility, agility, and a willingness to experiment
- Life-long learning skills, including curiosity, meta-cognition, and self-reflection
- The confidence to question, collaborate and innovate, and the communication skills enabling students to discuss their ideas
Former Salford student, Jake Ellison, was inspired to pursue a career in law after visiting one of Salford Business School's open days.
Jake said: "I always wanted to come to Manchester, and when I came to an open day at Salford, I really enjoyed the staff and enjoyed the course, the quality and content of the course that was on offer, so I thought it would be the best thing for me to do.
"It was only really when I came to Salford that I realised I actually wanted to go into law. I did law because I thought it would be a good qualification to have, but I wasn’t really interested in going into the legal profession.
"After studying for the first year, I decided I wanted to get a bit more experience and see what the legal profession is like, so did a mini pupillage that was arranged through Salford University. That set me on course to want to become a barrister.
"I also competed in the National Mooting competition. I competed in three of those throughout my time at Salford, and the opportunities that they offered me alongside other schemes such as the benefits advice support scheme, and volunteering with other organisations through Salford helped.
"During my final year at university, I studied employment law which is directly what I’m into now. The practical nature of the course really helped in my application for the work at Peninsula, as well as applying the skills I’ve used and what was on the course really helps in my job every day.
"I’m a litigation executive for Peninsula handling employment tribunal cases on behalf of clients from the point when we get the client. So I’m drafting the response which is the defence to the client and preparing all the way to the final period."
Jake believes all students at the university can achieve their career dreams too, providing they work hard and have fun.
"Work hard, but make sure that you enjoy yourself as well, because it’s a heavy course," he said.
"You have to give yourself enough time to learn the topic as well as be able to apply it.
"So, have fun and enjoy it as well, get involved in as many extra curricular activities, both around law and nothing to do with law, so you can balance your time effectively."
Salford Business School is incredibly data-informed, working closely with its students to ensure they are always learning and improving.
Associate dean academic, Dr Claire Hookham, said: "My role essentially is to look at the quality aspects of the teaching and learning at the business school, so that includes things such as what we teach and how we teach it, to make sure we’re working towards the regulations of the university and for any accredited bodies.
"We’re always asking if what we’re doing could be done better, and if so, how.
"We ask if we could we make the process easier, can we enhance the student experience, how can we make sure that we’re teaching really innovative and of-the-moment things as well.
"I have my finger on the pulse of anything that's going on in the curriculum, and we have really innovative assessment methods too.
"I make sure the way in which we assess our students not only fits with the university regulations, but is actually useful to them, and we make sure that they have genuinely real world experiences.
"That’s one of the things our business school is really keen on, that real world scenario. We’re not just teaching in a very academic way, but actually the way we teach our students is realistic, so we teach using real world case studies, we use experiences from our graduate community, experiences from both local and international businesses that we have within our reach and in our contacts, and we make sure that we’re assessing our students' progress in a very authentic way too.
"For example, with our marketing students, rather than saying they will do an exam on the theory or product placement in the retail sector, what we actually say to them is, 'do a marketing strategy', and we will give them a real world scenario.
"They then create the marketing report, they create the strategy, and in a lot of cases, because the challenge has come from one of our industry partners, they deliver that to the real world as well. Often we’ll have businesses coming in and watching our students, and it’s really lovely because they can give real world feedback, which is really important to us."
The university strives to shape graduates who could start the career of their dreams straight away, and be able to thrive in that real-world environment.
"We don't want to be sending out graduates who can only write essays or sit exams," Claire explained.
"We often ask businesses to come in, we do focus groups and have really open conversations and say: "Okay, if you’re employing graduates this week, what should they be able to do? What skills do they need, what knowledge do they need?"
"Then, we build this into how we’re designing our programmes. Part of my job is to change the courses and the modules within them to ensure what students learn fits with all those stakeholders as well.
"I have to make sure it’s going to work for the students, that it’s at a level they are going to understand, but that we’re also pushing them and making sure they’re going to be successful graduates.
"We’re passionate about ensuring that our students leave and secure a really good, graduate level job as soon as they have graduated.
"We even work with our students to guide them through writing their CVs and preparing cover letters, and letters of application, we do the research to find out what skills they need, and help them in a very practical way.
"I do think that’s really quite unique, everybody says they engage with business, but for us, it’s at the centre of everything we do. We ask what businesses want and say: "Let’s create that and make it a fantastic experience for students at the same time."
Salford Business School covers everything from accountancy and finance to economics, marketing and strategy, all the way up to international business and supply chain management logistics.
The university supports entrepreneurship, digital skills, and is proud to boast that there’s something for everyone.
Claire said: "We have a really diverse student and staff body, and a high percentage of BAME staff and students.
"We’re keen to support them in the way that works best for them. We don’t have any preconceptions about any of our prospective students. We’re acknowledging that a lot of our students are the first in their family, the first generation, to ever go to uni.
"Salford is a great place for people from diverse communities. We’re constantly working on how to make that better. We’re actively working on becoming more diverse and inclusive, to ensure our school is completely accessible for everybody.
"We’ve got loads of professional support, but also social support, such as debate societies that anybody in our student body can join. It’s such a vibrant place.
"We provide our students with a whole host of opportunities, we encourage them to undertake team building activities, to lead societies or groups of students on projects.
"We also provide the content they need to know, the basis of their knowledge, the how-tos. We’re not just teaching them for jobs that exist today, we’re teaching them to be lifelong learners and to continually develop their skills so they can prepare themselves for jobs that haven’t even been created yet.
"There are jobs on the market now that never existed a few years ago, things are ever-changing, and we teach our students to be versatile and resilient. We provide our students with a sustainable future."
To discover how Salford Business School could be the perfect fit for your career dreams, the university encourages any prospective students and their families and friends to visit their upcoming open day, on Saturday, October 9.
Visitors will have opportunities to speak to current students, as well as staff members.
Come to Salford Business School.
Become curious. Become confident. Become resilient. Become unstoppable.
To find out more, click here.
