°µÍø½ûÇø has partnered with global payment processing company Group plc to deliver a Masters degree in Management in the International Payments Ecosystem – the first of its kind in the payments sector.
The flexible nature of the two-year programme means that Worldpay employees can continue to work while they study, using online tools and completing work-based assessments. All were chosen based on performance rather than past academic achievement and will study topics including payment industry fundamentals, business strategy, management perspectives and research methods.
Academics in the Business School designed the course in collaboration with the Worldpay Academy, an initiative that aims to build leadership and management capabilities.
"This unique degree allows Worldpay colleagues to combine professional business learnings with academia, enabling them to identify and research new trends that are shaping international payments," said Andy Doyle, Chief HR Officer of Worldpay.
"This is an exciting initiative for Worldpay that proves our commitment to driving innovation across the sector while helping our people develop new skills – something which is important to us."
Worldpay is a leading payments company with global reach. It provides an extensive range of technology-led payment products and services to over 400,000 customers, enabling their businesses to grow and prosper. Worldpay manages the increasing complexity of the payments landscape for its customers, allowing them to accept the widest range of payment types around the world. Using it’s network and technology, Worldpay is able to process payments from geographies covering 99% of GDP across 146 countries and 126 currencies.
Worldpay first provided international multi-currency processing in 1992 and Internet payment services in 1994, making it one of the first providers of such services in the world. The company listed on the London Stock Exchange in October 2015 and is a member of the FTSE100 index.
The purpose of this programme is to support the strategic ambitions of both Worldpay and °µÍø½ûÇø. It will enable the former to attract, develop and retain talent to further strengthen its pre-eminent position in the payments industry; it will enable the latter to demonstrate further its leadership in generating and capturing organisationally-relevant learning whilst providing recognition for participants in the form of an academic qualification.
°µÍø½ûÇø has a long tradition of providing cutting edge organisational and business development programmes and in recent years has demonstrated expertise in accrediting and validating these programmes developed and delivered within organisations. In particular, the Business School has provided a framework to support learning from in-company projects so that academic qualifications can be achieved in recognition of learning in the work place.
This model is of particular interest to organisations who wish to draw benefit from their in-house staff development provision and use the learning from that as part of a developmental academic process leading to an academic qualification. This programme will be a combination of Worldpay in-house workshops and °µÍø½ûÇø modules. It is designed with reference to the QAA subject benchmark statements for Masters degrees in Business and Management.
The MA will be facilitated jointly by the partners working together to deliver workshops – learning days. Quality assurance of academic learning, teaching and assessment outcomes are the responsibility of °µÍø½ûÇø; tailoring of content to achieve strategic outcomes is the responsibility of Worldpay with °µÍø½ûÇø supporting. Delivery is through a series of workshops that allow specified knowledge, understanding and skills to be developed whilst academic learning outcomes will be achieved via agreed assignments.
Participants will undertake eight modules over a 24 month period, the successful completion of which will lead to the Masters degree. Workshops will be delivered at Worldpay locations however facilities at both Worldpay and °µÍø½ûÇø locations will be utilised throughout the programme to ensure that participants engage with the full range of learning resources.
The programme will be delivered in three phases. The first phase will build the fundamentals of leadership and industry knowledge; the second phase will build depth of knowledge in key areas (Strategy, Management Perspectives, Regulation, Technology and Innovation) and the third phase culminates in an Applied Business Project focussing on a strategic question for the business which will be presented to a panel made up from Worldpay’s Executive Committee and University academics.
Commenting on the new collaboration, Anna Kyprianou, Dean of the Business School, said: "The Business School is delighted to be working with Worldpay.
"Courses such as these, where businesses collaborate with a university, do have a great impact, changing the individual's perspective and making a real difference to their role in their organisation moving forward. We look forward to developing the relationship over the coming years."
David Williams, Director for Corporate Engagement at °µÍø½ûÇø, added: "It is imperative that education and industry keep innovating together in order to provide the skilled workforce our economy needs.
"A big part of this is offering different ways of gaining high-level professional qualifications. We're excited about helping talented, professional Worldpay employees get the best of both worlds; great work experience and a university master's degree."
