Welcome to your Visitor Attraction and Resort Management course

You will be taught through a combination of lectures, seminars and workshops. Seminars enable you to discuss and develop your understanding of topics covered in lectures in smaller groups. In addition, you will have meetings with an academic mentor at least twice a year.

The course will provide you with opportunities to engage with formative modules and engagement activities to help us to gauge your understanding of your subject informally before you complete the formal assessments.

There is a formal or ‘summative’ assessment at the end of each module. This includes a range of coursework assessments, practical portfolio work, development logbooks, written reports, presentations, and independent supervised projects. The grades from formal assessments count towards your module mark, and ultimately to your degree classification.

You’ll often be given independent learning tasks (homework) that are designed to consolidate your learning and give you opportunities to complete tutorials or practice what you’ve learnt from your scheduled sessions. This is what we refer to as self-managed study time. Assignments are broken up into milestones throughout the semesters.

In terms of practical elements ( in your first and second year) you have a dedicated paid work placement working with Alton Towers. This is an OFFICIAL contract position and students are expected to engage with the organisation as you would in a normal work situation. Attendance/absence will be expected and monitored. Your initial work placements will be organised for you and you will rotate around departments, it is a given that you will enjoy some more than others however we urge you to engage with all situations – if you are to be managers in the future you will need to know how each and every department operates. All shifts through your VARM contracts will be scheduled during the timetabled week however you are free to work more if you wish over the weekend.

Within the first few weeks you will be working the SCAREFEST event – this will be tiring but highly enjoyable. Be prepared to work hard and have fun. Sometimes the best experience is the ‘lived’ experience.

You will be given an Alton Towers induction, training and H&s information in the first week by Alton Towers so you are fully prepared.

In the final year you will take part in a consultancy module whereby you will develop collaborative management project with an organisation of your choice to identify an area of research beneficial to both you and the organisation. You will be involved in real-time problem solving, develop a set of recommendations based on your research findings and present those findings to the organisation. By collaborating with events professionals, you’ll gain valuable skills to help you develop your career.

The university provides academic resources such as libraries, writing centres, tutoring services, and study groups. Get to know what is available to you and take advantage of these resources to enhance your learning experience.

Essential equipment and facilities include:

• A laptop computer
• A reliable Broadband internet connection at your place of residence
• Access to Staffordshire University’s Virtual Learning Environment ‘Blackboard’
• Access to your Staffordshire University e-mail inbox
• Access to key Staffordshire University websites
• Access to the Staffordshire University online Library Portal for the Library Catalogue and links to e-Resources (such as subscribed e-books and journals)

Desirable equipment and facilities include:

• A headset for listening to audio content
• A microphone for creating audio content
• A webcam
• Access to Microsoft™ Office 365 products (such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Teams, etc.) which are provided by the university
• Access to remote tutorials and Webinars (primarily using Blackboard Collaborate online video conferencing)

Software you will need to have on your computer includes:

• Web browser (Google Chrome tends to work best with Blackboard)
• A Word-processing programme
• Adobe Acrobat – for reading on-line documents and electronic journals – this can be downloaded for free

You will need to be a proficient computer user, though technical help will be available if you have trouble with specific applications or tasks. The amount of time you will need to spend connected to the internet per week will be very variable. Most weeks it will be several hours. You can also download all the reading onto your own laptop and safely store it for future use.

Download software

We are planning to incorporate at least one session per module that will be held at Alton Towers and delivered by a senior member of staff – this will add context to what you are learning in the classroom and during your placement.