HND in Digital Technologies

There are several options for entry to this course:

• 48 UCAS points
• One A Level or BTEC National Diploma / Certificate
• Relevant work experience in a business department role

This course involves discussing the theoretical foundation of Artificial Intelligence (AI), including its types and areas of application. Students will analyse the approaches, techniques, and tools used to deploy Intelligent Systems. They will also learn to modify AI-based systems to enhance their ability to exhibit intelligence in response to real-world problems. Additionally, the course covers evaluating the technical and ethical challenges and opportunities associated with Intelligent Systems.

Course content:

Year 1

Professional Practice in the Digital Economy

The rapid pace of technological change is transforming the way we work. The World Economic Forum highlights the need for individuals who can solve complex problems, communicate well, and be resilient, creative, and innovative in an increasingly automated world where smart technologies handle routine tasks. These skills are essential for daily proficiency in designated tasks, and continuous professional development ensures individuals possess valuable skills applicable to any problem-solving situation or environment.

This unit provides a foundation for good practice across various contexts, allowing students to examine the evolution and impact of digital technologies on work environments. Students will explore the importance of professional development for career success and the benefits of working towards career goals. Problem-solving requires transferable and communication skills, and working with others is integral to everyday life. Understanding role responsibilities and how to collaborate with peers and colleagues supports professional development. Upon successful completion, students will be able to explain the influence of the Fourth Industrial Revolution on work and skills in the digital sector, justify the use of transferable and communication skills for problem-solving, and make recommendations on professional development planning and feedback. They will develop crucial skills such as problem-solving, critical thinking, analysis, reasoning, and interpretation for professional practice and workplace competence in a digital world.

Innovation & Digital Transformation

Many businesses remain competitive by adapting strategies and rethinking their operating models in response to market changes. Technology enables these organisations to evolve and enhance their value to customers, with modern services increasingly moving online, making digital transformation essential. In 2019, global spending on digital transformation technologies and services grew by around 18%. This unit aims to provide students with a comprehensive understanding of digital transformation.

Digital transformation involves integrating digital technology into all areas of a business to maximise Return on Investment (ROI), leading to significant changes in business operations and culture. Students will explore various tools and techniques that organisations use to innovate, including frameworks and elements such as operational agility, culture, leadership, customer experience, and digital technology integration.

Cyber Security

Digital technologies provide opportunities for malicious hackers and cyberterrorists to exploit individuals, governments, institutions, and large organisations. Defending against cyberattacks, including insider threats, is a priority in the digital technologies sector. Cybercrime techniques and attack vectors are rapidly evolving, leveraging the speed, anonymity, and convenience of the internet to facilitate malicious and criminal activities.

This unit aims to develop students' knowledge and understanding of cyber threats, vulnerabilities, defence techniques, and incident response. Students will explore fundamental principles, leading-edge concepts, terminologies, models, and hardening methods. They will assess types of malicious activities and potential targets, and understand the role everyone plays in maintaining cyber resilience. Upon successful completion, students will have examined the nature of cybercrime and cyber threat actors, roles and responsibilities related to information assurance, threats and vulnerabilities in ICT infrastructure, and strategic responses to cybersecurity threats.

Programming

Programming involves describing processes and procedures derived from algorithms, distinguishing developers from end users. Developers write source code in a language that devices can understand and execute. Algorithms describe solutions to problems by identifying necessary data and processes, and programming languages represent these through control constructs and data types. These constructs enable sequential processing, decision making, and iteration, essential for algorithm representation.

This unit introduces students to programming fundamentals, including algorithms and programming paradigms such as procedural, object-oriented, and event-driven programming. It covers security considerations, integrated development environments (IDEs), and debugging processes. By completing this unit, students will be able to design and implement algorithms in an IDE, developing skills like communication literacy, critical thinking, analysis, reasoning, and interpretation, which are vital for employment and academic success.

Big Data & Visualisation

Exploring and analysing big data translates information into insight, revealing opportunities for improved decision-making and better business outcomes. Data visualisation is crucial for making big data comprehensible, allowing the human brain to detect patterns, trends, and meanings in complex data sets. Rapid advancements in this field pose challenges for data specialists to develop the necessary skills and experience to maintain innovation. Both public and private sectors struggle to keep pace with progress, often introducing legislation and norms retrospectively. As data fuels the digital economy, it remains a key topic for organisations, governments, and the public interested in its commercial use, manipulation, and presentation.

This unit introduces students to big data and visualisation concepts used for decision-making. Students will explore industry software solutions for investigating and presenting data, assess the role and responsibilities of data specialists, and examine topics such as data-driven decision-making, data manipulation, automation, and building ethics into a data-driven culture. They will demonstrate their ability to use tools and software to create visual presentations and ensure data compliance. Upon successful completion, students will understand the value of data for decision-making, compare industry-leading tools for data analysis and visualisation, and analyse challenges in building ethical data-driven cultures. This unit prepares students for various roles in the digital sector, developing essential skills for practical experiences with big data and employment.

Cloud Fundamentals

The phrase "it's in the cloud" has become ubiquitous in computing, revolutionising how we use computer services. Storing data and services remotely on the internet has significantly increased availability as virtual services proliferate. The growth in cloud adoption presents challenges for companies, especially small- and medium-sized enterprises with limited resources, to source cloud expertise. Consequently, individuals skilled in cloud technologies are in high demand. Accessing applications, storage, printing, server functions, and data from almost any device has become the norm, and the ability to scale computing resources according to demand has reduced the need for central computing resources.

This unit aims to develop an understanding of cloud computing fundamentals, including cloud deployment models and the need for cloud computing. Students will appreciate the issues associated with managing cloud service architecture and develop critical awareness of cloud-computing-based projects. Topics covered include networking paradigms, cloud computing fundamentals, architecture and frameworks, deployment models, service models, security, cloud-specific technology, and reviews of Cloud Service Providers (CSPs). Upon successful completion, students will understand cloud computing concepts, architecture, and services, developing essential skills such as communication literacy, critical thinking, analysis, reasoning, and interpretation, crucial for employment and academic competence. This unit is designed to be the first in the Cloud Computing qualifications, explaining the fundamentals of cloud computing and its infrastructure.

Software Development Lifecycles

The software development lifecycle is an integrated process aimed at creating high-quality, secure software throughout the development stages. This unit provides students with the knowledge and skills to understand and implement software development lifecycles using appropriate methodologies. Students will learn to make lifecycle decisions at various stages of the development process, examining different lifecycle models to understand their characteristics and suitability for different project environments. Practical skills will be developed through a real software development lifecycle project, enhancing students' confidence in using specific tools and techniques relevant to their chosen methodology.

Topics covered in this unit include iterative and sequential models of software development lifecycles, reference frameworks for capturing conceptual data, feasibility studies, requirement gathering techniques, and activities related to analysis, design, and software implementation. By completing this unit, students will develop essential skills such as communication literacy, critical thinking, analysis, reasoning, and interpretation, which are crucial for employment and academic success.

Fundamentals of Artificial Intelligence (AI) & Intelligent Systems

Intelligent Systems are revolutionising various industries by introducing flexibility, quality, and energy efficiency to applications such as transportation, healthcare, education, and defence. Enabled by technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI), these systems offer opportunities to gain insights from data and take intelligent actions, enhancing task performance and enabling previously impossible tasks. The growth of AI allows companies to reduce costs, increase productivity, and introduce new products, creating high demand for individuals skilled in AI and its applications.

This unit introduces the science behind machine intelligence and the philosophical debate on simulating human intelligence to solve real-world problems. Students will explore AI types and applications, intelligent agents, and topics like Artificial Narrow Intelligence (ANI), Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), Ambient Intelligence, and Machine Learning (ML) algorithms. They will learn about data gathering, validation, processing, and visualisation, and develop skills to study deployed Intelligent Systems while evaluating technical and ethical challenges and opportunities.

Business Intelligence

Modern business intelligence aims to provide a holistic view of an organisation's data, enabling informed decision-making, efficiency improvements, and swift adaptation to market shifts. Business intelligence has evolved from decision support systems and now integrates data mining, data integration, quality, and warehousing to deliver contextualised present and historical data, which is crucial for effective problem-solving.

This unit will equip students with the tools and techniques to transform raw data into meaningful business insights. They'll explore data processing from capture to output, define business intelligence tools and technologies, develop a business intelligence solution, and evaluate its impact on decision-making. Successfully completing the unit will not only highlight the importance of business intelligence for optimised performance but also cultivate essential communication, critical thinking, analysis, reasoning, and interpretation skills.

Internet of Things

The Internet of Things (IoT) connects physical objects—like devices, vehicles, and drones—through embedded electronics, software, sensors, and network connectivity, allowing them to collect and exchange data. The goal of IoT is to make these objects "smart" and data-capable, integrating the physical world into computer-based systems for better efficiency, accuracy, and overall social and economic benefits. This involves a blend of hardware, software, data, platforms, and services, opening up new opportunities.

This unit will introduce students to the fundamental concepts and benefits of IoT in designing and developing computer applications. Topics covered include IoT classification and terminology, the hardware, software, and services that enable IoT, common architectures and tools, and the challenges and solutions of widespread IoT deployment. Students will learn to design, build, and simulate IoT applications, discuss the problems they solve, their societal impact, and the complexities of integrating them into the broader IoT ecosystem. This will also help students develop essential skills like communication, design thinking, teamwork, and critical analysis.

Emerging Technologies

Emerging technologies are those that can disrupt industries, profoundly impact society, and solve significant problems. Often underpinned by computing, they facilitate rapid development and the swift sharing of ideas and understanding across diverse fields. These technologies fundamentally alter the status quo, aiming to solve problems, boost performance, improve efficiency, or even create entirely new scientific domains by converging different systems and disciplines. They are characterised by radical novelty, potential for substantial commercial or social impact, rapid growth and scalability, and an uncertain yet influential future.

This unit will explore the role, benefits, drawbacks, and potential outcomes of emerging technologies in software development and business. Students will gain an understanding of various types of emerging technologies, their terminology, advantages, disadvantages, and potential impacts. The curriculum includes classifying these technologies, reviewing the most promising ones, analysing convergence trends, and understanding their scale and scope of impact on organisations, employees, and individuals. Successful completion will enable students to explain key emerging technologies and their effects on software development, while also developing crucial skills like communication, design thinking, critical thinking, and computer software literacy.

Risk Analysis & Systems Testing

This unit focuses on risk-based testing (RBT), a method for prioritising software tests during system testing. RBT emphasises testing areas with the highest potential impact and likelihood of failure, helping to efficiently allocate testing resources and organize software testing in industry.

Students will learn to develop a detailed RBT procedure for a medium-sized application, documenting results and evaluating its effectiveness. The unit covers classifying and evaluating software risks using tools like the risk formula and matrix, developing test strategies, conducting priority test cycles, security testing, and coverage analysis. Completing this unit will also enhance students' communication, critical thinking, analysis, reasoning, and interpretation skills.

Application Development

Application development involves planning, creating, testing, and deploying information systems, often to automate processes, build products addressing business needs, or gain a competitive edge through innovation. Key skills for a developer include professionalism, critical thinking, and the ability to work both independently and collaboratively.

This unit immerses students in the roles and responsibilities of a commercial developer. They'll tackle a business problem, analysing issues and then designing, creating, and testing a solution. Students will learn about design and developer documentation, problem analysis, requirements gathering, various design and development methodologies (including security considerations and software development lifecycles), teamwork, and development tools. Upon completion, students will be able to produce software design documents, create functional business applications individually or in teams, and assess performance against initial requirements, fostering essential communication, critical thinking, analysis, and interpretation skills.

Application Program Interfaces

Many modern applications are built using components from other software, whether they're web, mobile, or desktop-based. This allows developers to integrate existing functionalities rather than building everything from scratch. For example, a restaurant locator app might use an existing map service, or a game could incorporate social media features. This seamless interaction between applications is made possible through an Application Program Interface (API).

APIs provide methods and tools developed by software authors, offering services and functionalities that other developers can utilise, effectively preventing the need to "reinvent the wheel." This unit will introduce students to APIs by having them develop a proof-of-concept application that integrates existing APIs for common tasks like communication, interactive visuals, and user input. Upon completion, students will be able to identify, select, test, and document relevant APIs for various scenarios, while also developing crucial communication, critical thinking, analysis, reasoning, and interpretation skills essential for both employment and academic success.

Work-based Learning in the Digital Economy

Continuous learning is vital for professionals in the ever-evolving digital industries, where technology, processes, and legislation constantly change. Organisations must embrace both formal education and practical, on-the-job learning to stay current. This includes understanding industry structures and employment trends, whether through traditional placements, freelance work, or simulated industry environments. Effective workplace learning combines applying skills with appropriate professional attitudes and behaviours.

This unit offers students a framework to reflect on and contextualise their industry learning. Working with tutors and employers, students will define their work-based learning experience's scope, duration, and content, and will be expected to regularly record and reflect on their experiences throughout.

Digital Sustainability

The 21st-century digital technologies sector faces significant and unforeseen sustainability challenges, including issues related to mineral resources, ethical labour practices, economic impact, supply chains, and climate. As defined by the Brundtland Commission, sustainable development means meeting present needs without compromising future generations. While the digital sector is crucial in achieving a sustainable economy, no single discipline can solve these complex problems alone.

Sustainability is a multidisciplinary challenge, requiring future technologists to collaborate urgently with engineers, scientists, government bodies, and financiers to find practical and technological solutions. This unit will equip students with a comprehensive understanding of sustainability issues and low-impact digital technology solutions. They will explore the interdisciplinary nature of sustainability, the importance of a low-carbon economy in the digital sector, and evaluate current digital technology solutions for their impact and sustainability.

To join this course please click the Register Interest button to receive an email with a unique link and instructions to register with UCAS at www.ucas.com and then apply through UCAS.

You will then receive a confirmation email from UCAS and the college will be in contact with an interview date. Current Shrewsbury Colleges Group students should seek support from their tutor before applying.

If after reading this fact sheet, you are still undecided about the programme most suitable for you, please drop into one of our advice events, ring the Admissions Team on 01743 653333 or email courseadvice@scg.ac.uk