Mike Kennard (Senior Lecturer in Innovation, Strategy and Entrepreneurship, Alliance Manchester Business School)

Mike’s approach to inclusive blended learning creates a flexible and innovative system of support for mature and experienced students on the Senior Leader Master’s Degree Apprenticeship programme offered by Alliance Manchester Business School.

By recognising the needs and prior experience of the students on the course, Mike has built a combined system of Zoom tutorials and classroom-based workshops, during which he takes the role of a facilitator rather than a teacher. Through this he delivers an experiential business simulation, based on his own unique experience in the private sector. Colleagues have noted the effectiveness of this approach in light of the course’s main audience: Business Executives. With years of professional experience, executives represent some of the most challenging learners to engage successfully, and throughout, both Mike and the Unit he has masterminded live up to and build upon that challenge.