Development Tools and Skills (L2146S)

30 credits, Level 6

Spring teaching

Explore a range of key tools, approaches and skills used in the development world to identify, design and evaluate development interventions.

The module will take a hands-on approach, allowing you to develop skills that are useful in development. They will also be useful in many other types of work in public policy, private and voluntary sectors.

You’ll study skills and tools such as:

• project management
• problem analysis
• stakeholder analysis
• risk analysis
• cost-benefit analysis
• logical frameworks.

You'll also gain experience of working in teams, as well as in presenting clear and convincing arguments, and in advocacy and negotiating.

The module is based around a series of three-hour workshops where you'll work in groups to apply a variety of tools and skills to different development scenarios and then reflect critically on your strengths and weakness.

By the end of this module you'll be able to: 

• demonstrate knowledge of a range of key tools and approaches used in development organisations to identify, design and evaluate development programmes.
• gain practical experience of using and applying these tools and approaches.
• critically evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of these tools and approaches.
• develop interpersonal skills of working in teams, in presenting clear and convincing arguments, and in advocacy and negotiating.

Contact hours and workload

This module is approximately 300 hours of work. This breaks down into about 30 hours of contact time and about 270 hours of independent study. The University may make minor variations to the contact hours for operational reasons, including timetabling requirements.

We regularly review our modules to incorporate student feedback, staff expertise, as well as the latest research and teaching methodology. We’re planning to run these modules in the academic year 2024/25. However, there may be changes to these modules in response to feedback, staff availability, student demand or updates to our curriculum.

We’ll make sure to let you know of any material changes to modules at the earliest opportunity.