From strength to strength In January this year Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU) Business School won the prestigious Best Innovation Strategy award, supported by Kortext, at the AMBA & BGA Excellence Awards. Kortext’s Melissa Bowden spoke to MMU dean Professor Hannah Holmes to discover more about its award-winning entry
T he Innovation in Employability – a strengths approach to personal and professional development project elaborated by MMU, which scooped this year’s AMBA prize for Best Innovation Strategy, was carried out in partnership with Cappfinity to foster student development and enhance employability. The approach not only highlights a student’s current capabilities, or ‘realised strengths’, but also identifies their potential, or ‘unrealised strengths’, encouraging them to embrace their unique skillset. Business school dean Professor Hannah Holmes explains that the introduction of the strengths-based approach stemmed from a desire to move away from the ‘deficit model’ of personal and professional development (PPD), in which educators focus on plugging perceived gaps in students’ skills. Instead, she relates, “We moved to a position of asking ‘What are you really good at? What are your innate skills?’” This approach is embedded in the curriculum throughout an undergraduate degree and Holmes outlines two main drivers behind
40 | Ambition | MARCH/APRIL 2024
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