Head of Business and Applied Learning

Farhan Malik

I use recognisable local work and community cases in Business and Applied Learning, giving students concrete material to analyse while preserving each subject’s questions and different possible pathways.

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A little about me

I lead Business and Applied Learning across Business, Health and Social Care, and Sociology. Those subjects look at different parts of working and social life, but students benefit when the cases they discuss sound like contexts they can recognise.

I seek case studies grounded in Manchester sectors familiar to both learners and employer volunteers. Local context gives a discussion something concrete to examine, while each subject still needs to ask its own questions. Careers and applied learning also meet during our mock-interview day, which I help coordinate.

Planning across this group means keeping the examples relevant without narrowing the course to one employer or one career route. I want a case to give students material to analyse, not a promise about where a qualification will take them. The discussion should leave room for them to compare possibilities and make sense of the subject.

How I approach a lesson

Ground case studies in recognisable local work contexts.
Keep the analytical question specific to Business, Health and Social Care or Sociology.
Use mock interviews as a planned opportunity to explore careers, without promising a destination.