Improvement Leader Apprenticeship | Managing Business Transformation

We’re living through an era of transformation. Learn the skills to meet change with confidence and make the future work for you and your organisation.

The Improvement Leader Level 6 Apprenticeship is a specialist programme designed to equip ambitious professionals with the strategic insight, operational tools, and human-centred leadership needed to drive meaningful transformation.

This specialist programme uses the principles of Project and Change Management and Lean and Six Sigma methodologies and brings them to life through real-world application. It develops confident change-makers who can lead complex improvement initiatives with clarity and precision.

Key benefits for businesses

• Build the capability and technical skills needed to lead teams through change and transformation
• Prepare employees to manage unprecedented changes and improvements in your organisation
• Shape learner outcomes that can benefit your strategic business goals
• Connect work-based projects to real business challenges within your organisation

Key benefits for individuals

• Become an advocate for improvement and operational excellence and act as a role model for others and gain the opportunity to influence strategic review and change.
• Builds on operational and strategic skills to be a change-maker in your organisation
• Develop and demonstrate personal resilience and learn how to challenge, influence and engage senior stakeholders.
• Build a best practice sharing network.
• Earn an Executive Diploma in Managing Business Transformation from a respected, triple-accredited business school.
• Join Henley’s alumni network, one of the largest in the world

Contact the Apprenticeship Engagement Team for the latest programme schedule for your chosen start date.

Have your questions answered at the next Insight Session on 22 August | 11:00 - 11:45

Discover how the Henley Senior Leader Apprenticeship can be a transformative step in your leadership journey. During this session, our Apprenticeship Engagement Team will:

• Outline the key features of the programme: Learn about the unique aspects that make our programme stand out.
• Highlight career benefits: See how this apprenticeship can significantly enhance your career
• Share success stories: Hear from past participants who have achieved remarkable growth and success.

We will also host a Q&A Session at the end, so bring your questions along. This is your opportunity to gain valuable insights and clarity about the next steps.

As the employer, you need to formally nominate learners before they can apply to our apprenticeship programmes. You must also enter a three-way agreement with the apprentice and Henley Business School / the University of Reading. Find out more about the application process.

Entry requirements for the individual

We welcome driven professionals who are ready to take their improvement leadership skills to the next level. To ensure the best possible experience and outcomes for everyone, you'll need to meet a few key eligibility criteria.

Skills England Apprenticeship eligibility criteria

This programme is funded through your employer’s apprenticeship levy. Before applying, please confirm that you’re eligible to receive apprenticeship funding under the Skills England criteria.

Professional experience

To get the most from this programme, applicants should have at least two years of hands-on experience in roles that involve managing or delivering improvement or transformation projects.

Applicants also need to work in a position that supports applying what they’ll learn. Their roles should offer the scope to apply the apprenticeship’s learning outcomes in real time. A baseline assessment during the application process will help determine this fit.

CV & Personal statement guidelines

In their CVs and personal statements, applicants need to demonstrate professional experience, over two years, across at least three of the following areas (there's no priority order).

• Leading or managing individuals or teams in improvement activities
• Coaching, training or mentoring others in improvement methods
• Designing, sourcing, facilitating and evaluating training solutions to build organisational improvement capabilities
• Leading/managing/facilitating project management, change management tools and techniques
• Applying change or project management techniques
• Application of process mapping & analysis principles and tools
• Planning and analysing data to inform improvements; supporting others with data interpretation
• Identification and prioritisation of new opportunities in the context of a portfolio of multiple improvement projects
• Guide others on the planning, analysis and interpretation of experiments. Plan, conduct, analyse and optimise both full and fractional experiments
• Application of problem-solving methods.

Please note: If you already hold titles such as Lean Master, Senior Lean Leader, Master Black Belt, or similar senior qualifications, you may not be eligible for this programme.

See here for the Improvement Leader Occupational Standard and Assessment plan for this apprenticeship.

The Improvement Leader Apprenticeship | Managing Business Transformation costs £15,000. Your organisation can fund this with its apprenticeship service account. All employers will need to have an account to access our apprenticeship service.

How the apprentice is supported

Off-the-job training

Apprentices will spend a minimum of six hours per week (equivalent) of their time on ‘off-the-job training’. This is a mandatory component of an apprenticeship that the employer must support them with. Both the learner and employer need to agree on how this time is set aside around the learner's work commitments as it is training that they will undertake during their paid hours. Off-the-job training is not exclusive to workshops and online study sessions - other examples include:

• Practical training: shadowing, mentoring and industry visits
• Chairing or attending meetings (outside the normal job function)
• Learning support and time spent writing assignments
• Meeting with the apprenticeship tutor
• Working on their evidence portfolio.

Line manager

Additional support for the apprentice comes from their line manager. We will engage with them to ensure they understand the details of the programme and format for learning as well as the requirements for off-the-job training. Line managers will also be involved in agreeing on impactful work-based projects, meeting with the apprenticeship learning coach, and, if required, allocating apprentices a mentor.

During the action learning workshops and through some of the online learning apprentices will have the opportunity to learn from our academic staff, whose knowledge and expertise underpin the modules they will study.​

The Improvement Leader Apprenticeship programme will be taught using a blended learning method that combines learning in the workplace with face-to-face and online workshops, with the module content and resources on a virtual learning environment (VLE). The VLE provides access to resources and learning coach interactions to develop your learning portfolio, which allows you to reflect on the knowledge, skills and behaviours that you develop throughout the programme

In the workshops, apprentices will have the opportunity to learn from Henley's apprenticeship learning coaches who have relevant background experience in these subject areas.

The programme includes:

• Application of learning in the workplace: Implementation of the new tools, techniques and methodologies learnt, with guidance from Henley academic staff and learning coaches
• Continuous 360-degree reviews of your progress with you, your line manager and Henley learning coaches

• Liaison with the learner's employer and line manager to determine the topics to use in the work-based projects

Course structure

The learning in the workplace is supported by nine core modules. These will be delivered through a combination of online learning and experiential learning through application in the workplace, supported by a learning coach.

This apprenticeship programme consists of three streams delivered over three stages.

Each stream includes three modules tailored to core aspects of improvement and leadership. Apprentices study each module for an eight-week period, with each stage lasting six months. In addition to the stream-specific modules, all learners will be provided a content of ‘Apprenticeship Essentials’ which will enable learners to engage in resources to meet the OFSTED requirements.

The assessment process allows learners to showcase the impact of their work and learning with the submission of a work-based project at the end of each module. ​Learners will collect evidence of knowledge, skills and behaviours as they progress through the programme. They will then showcase this evidence in the final stage of the apprenticeship. This is known as the end-point assessment (EPA), comprising an evidence portfolio and work-based dissertation.

Module assessment

At the end of each eight-week module, apprentices complete a 1,500-word work-based project. When completing these projects, learners focus on improving a process, system, product or leadership approach. The work-based assessments form part of each apprentice’s portfolio for their end-point assessment (EPA).

The EPA also includes a work-based dissertation of 4,000-5,000 words. This assessment focuses on the development and deployment of an improvement strategy. Learners present their work to assessors for 45-50 minutes, followed by a questioning session of 35-40 minutes.

Awards

On successful completion of the EPA, learners will hold:

• Level 6 Improvement Leader Apprenticeship
• Henley Executive Diploma in Managing Business Transformation.

Location

For clients wishing to run a closed cohort, we have the flexibility to deliver the programme at locations nationwide. If you do not wish to use your organisation's facilities, we are happy to arrange an alternative teaching venue that may be more convenient for your staff.

Open cohort workshops are typically taught at our Greenlands campus near Henley-on-Thames. Set in sweeping parkland on the banks of the River Thames, this beautiful campus provides an inspiring and reflective environment for focused work and study.

Facilities

Through the Henley Business School Library and the virtual learning environment, learners can access a multitude of resources including books, journals, market research reports, dissertations, working papers and company information.

Find out more about our facilities and how to find us

For 80 years, Henley Business School has developed confident and resilient business leaders. Find out more about our approach to working with you

Our Apprenticeship programmes are rated Good by Ofsted across all areas - quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development, and leadership and management.

To ensure that apprentices’ work and training are well co-ordinated and effective, Henley’s tutors and line managers collaborate fully with employers and apprentices.

At Henley, we offer a full portfolio of programmes from early career all the way up to board level, and it’s this broad experience that enables us to have a clear and complete vision for our apprenticeship provision.