Operations Manager Level 5

An Operations Manager is responsible for providing input to strategic planning, creating and delivering operational plans, managing projects, leading and managing teams, managing change, overseeing financial and resource management, supporting talent management, and coaching and mentoring others. This role is applicable to professional managers across all sectors — private, public, and third — and in organisations of all sizes.

This apprenticeship will help you develop a wide range of knowledge, skills, and behaviours, including:

Knowledge

• Understand operational management approaches and models, including how to create plans to deliver objectives and set KPIs (key performance indicators).
• Know how to set up and manage a project using relevant tools and techniques, and understand process management.
• Understand business finance, including how to manage budgets and financial forecasting.
• Understand different leadership styles, and how to lead multiple and remote teams and manage team leaders.
• Know how to manage multiple teams and develop high-performing teams, including performance management techniques, talent management models, and how to recruit and develop people.
• Understand approaches to partner, stakeholder, and supplier relationship management, including negotiation, influencing, and effective networking.
• Understand problem-solving and decision-making techniques, including data analysis.
• Understand organisational values and ethics, and their impact on decision-making.

Skills

• Plan, organise and manage resources to deliver required outcomes, monitor progress, and identify risks and mitigations.
• Use relevant project management tools effectively.
• Communicate organisational vision and goals, and explain how these apply to teams.
• Manage talent and performance; develop, build, and motivate teams by identifying their strengths.
• Build trust, use effective negotiation and influencing skills, and manage conflict.
• Identify and share good practice, collaborating with others both inside and outside the organisation, and using specialist advice and support to deliver against plans.
• Reflect on own performance, working style, and its impact on others.
• Create a personal development plan, using time management and prioritisation techniques.

Behaviours

• Show drive to achieve in all aspects of work.
• Demonstrate resilience and accountability.
• Show determination when managing difficult situations.
• Seek new opportunities.
• Be open, approachable, authentic, and able to build trust with others.
• Seek the views of others and value diversity.
• Be flexible to the needs of the organisation.
• Be creative, innovative, and enterprising when seeking solutions to business needs.
• Be positive and adaptable, responding well to feedback and change.
• Be open to new ways of working.
• Set an example by being fair, consistent, and impartial.
• Be open and honest, operating within organisational values.

A blend of on-the-job and academic learning

Most of your learning will be on-the-job and led by your employer. However, you will come into university regularly to attend lectures, tutorials, seminars, debates, and practice-based workshops. You will also receive regular workplace visits from your Instructor-Mentor for observations, professional discussions, and progress reviews.

How you are assessed

The Apprenticeship Assessment is the final stage of every apprenticeship. It checks overall competence, not just individual tasks, and gives apprentices the chance to demonstrate the Knowledge, Skills and Behaviours (KSBs) they have developed. For this apprenticeship, there are two elements: a report on a project completed as part of the apprenticeship and a professional discussion with questions based on the portfolio of evidence, which will be collated throughout the apprenticeship. 

Earn a recognised qualification
As part of this apprenticeship, you'll achieve the ILM Level 5 Diploma in Leadership & Management, a qualification valued across all sectors, enhancing your professional credibility. 

Develop essential management skills
The apprenticeship equips you with skills in operational planning, project management, financial oversight, team leadership, and change management, preparing you for senior roles. 

Gain professional recognition
Upon completion, you can register as a full member with the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) and the Institute of Leadership & Management (ILM), with the potential to apply for Chartered Manager status after three years of management experience. 

Advance your career prospects
This apprenticeship serves as a stepping stone to higher-level qualifications, such as a Level 6 or 7 Masters Apprenticeship, opening doors to advanced or specialist management positions. 

• We welcome and encourage applications from apprentices of all ages, as long as they can be considered adequately prepared to succeed on the programme.
• All apprentices will be asked to provide evidence of previous qualifications to confirm their ability to undertake the apprenticeship.
• Apprentices without level 2 or GCSE grade 4 or above in Maths and English will need to achieve this level prior to taking the apprenticeship assessment.
• You must have the right to work in the UK and have lived in the UK for at least the past three years.
• As this is an apprenticeship, you will also require suitable employment to undertake the programme, including responsibility for leading a team. 

Apprenticeships are funded by either the employer or the government; apprentices do not pay for their training.

Contact us

FE & Skills Apprenticeship Team

• Email: feapprenticeships@derby.ac.uk
• Phone: 0800 074 0099