Bachelor of Science in Skills and Workforce Systems
Uganda has one of the youngest populations on earth and one of the widest gaps between what young people can do and what employers need, and closing it is a systems problem: skills analysis, training design, workforce data, and the machinery that connects learning to work. Almost nobody is trained ...
Employment thesis
What this programme is designed to produce
Forward publishes the destination of every programme before you enrol. If the thesis stops holding, the programme is reviewed and, where necessary, retired. Next review: 2032.
Roles
- Workforce systems specialist
- skills and labour market analyst
- training and curriculum designer
- competency and standards developer
- workforce data analyst
- employment and pathways lead
- skills programme manager
- workforce development founder
Employer types
- Skills and workforce development agencies
- training institutions and TVET providers
- employers and industry skills bodies
- development and employment programmes
- ministries of education and labour
- corporate learning and talent functions
- the graduate's own venture
- international development organisations
- and the graduate's own venture
- incubated through the Forward Venture Studio
Target outcomes we hold ourselves to
- This programme targets strong graduate compensation in a nationally prioritised field and supports ventures. Progression routes include the MEd in Education Leadership and doctoral study.
Compulsory · The Forward Core
How the Core works →Every Forward programme, including this one, carries the same five cross-cutting requirements. They are graded, not optional.
- AI Fluency
- Quantitative Reasoning
- Ethics and African Context
- Human-Advantage Skills
- Enterprise
Includes 12 months paid work-integrated learning
Students complete COP 190 Workplace Immersion in the Year 1 recess term, COP 290 Co-operative Education Placement I (six months, paid, assessed) and COP 390 Co-operative Education Placement II (six months, paid, assessed), totalling not fewer than twelve months. Placement hosts are contracted by the Co-operative Education Office. The employer completes a structured capability assessment carrying 40 to 50 per cent of the placement mark and signs the capability claims that enter the Capability Passport. Online students are placed with accredited hosts in their own city or country under remote academic supervision, or have their existing employment accredited as the placement site under Part D4. Read the co-op commitment
Am I eligible?
Check yourself against the published requirements
7 questions written specifically for Bachelor of Science in Skills and Workforce Systems. Every answer is checked against a requirement Forward has published, and the result tells you which page that requirement comes from. Indicative only, the admissions office decides on your full file.
What is the highest qualification you hold or are completing?
Curriculum structure
The same degree, in both pathways
Every Forward programme is published in both pathways: Path One, the term plan of two six-month terms, and Path Two, the block sequence of twelve four-week blocks. Same competencies, same assessments, same award. Toggle to see this programme in each.
Path One term plan shown
Path One · The Term Model
| Code | Course | CU | Hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| FDC 101 | AI Fluency I: How Intelligent Systems Work Both | 4 | 2-2-0 |
| BSWS 110 | Foundations of Skills and Workforce Systems Both | 5 | 3-2-2 |
| BSWS 111 | Economics and Data for Labour Markets Both | 5 | 3-2-2 |
| BSWS 112 | Analytics for Workforce Systems Performance | 4 | 2-2-4 |
| BSWS 113 | Learning and Competency Foundations Both | 4 | 2-2-2 |
| Code | Course | CU | Hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| FDC 102 | Quantitative Reasoning and Evidence Both | 4 | 2-2-0 |
| BSWS 130 | Labour Market Analysis and Skills Forecasting Both | 5 | 3-2-2 |
| BSWS 131 | Competency Based Training Design Both | 5 | 3-2-2 |
| BSWS 132 | Qualifications, Standards and Frameworks Performance | 4 | 2-2-4 |
| BSWS 133 | Pathways and Work Integrated Learning Both | 4 | 2-2-2 |
| COP 190 | Workplace Immersion (4 weeks, recessterm) Performance | 0 | 0-0-0 |
| Code | Course | CU | Hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| FDC 201 | Ethics, Society and the African Context Both | 4 | 2-2-0 |
| BSWS 210 | Workforce Data and Analytics Both | 5 | 3-2-2 |
| BSWS 211 | Programme Design, Monitoring and Evaluation Both | 5 | 3-2-2 |
| BSWS 212 | Employer Engagement and Industry Partnership Performance | 4 | 2-2-4 |
| BSWS 213 | Digital Skills Platforms and Matching Both | 4 | 2-2-2 |
| Code | Course | CU | Hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| FDC 202 | Human Advantage: Argument, Writing and Teams Both | 4 | 2-2-0 |
| COP 290 | Co-operative Education Placement I (6 months) Performance | 10 | 0-0-0 |
| BSWS 230 | Intelligent Systems for Skills and Employment Both | 5 | 3-2-2 |
| BSWS 231 | Workforce Policy and the National Framework Performance | 3 | 1-2-2 |
| Code | Course | CU | Hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| FDC 301 | AI Fluency II: Building, Evaluating and Auditing Both | 4 | 2-2-0 |
| FDC 401 | /402 Capability Portfolio, Governance and Day One Block Both | 6 | 2-2-2 |
| BSWS 310 | Skills Programme Management Both | 5 | 3-2-2 |
| BSWS 311 | Workforce Specialisation Elective Performance | 4 | 2-2-4 |
| BSWS 312 | Workforce Capstone: Design a Real Skills to Work System Both | 3 | 1-2-2 |
| Code | Course | CU | Hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| FDC 302 | Enterprise, Employability and Financial Literacy Both | 4 | 2-2-0 |
| COP 390 | Co-operative Education Placement II (6 months) Performance | 10 | 0-0-0 |
| BSWS 330 | Professional Practice and Workforce Leadership Performance | 8 | 2-2-8 |
Total credit units: 132
Curriculum source
Forward University Curriculum Compendium
Assessment
Assessment follows Part E without variation. Across the programme the aggregate weighting is 35 per cent continuous assessment and built artefacts, 25 per cent authentic performance including practical examination and oral defence, 30 per cent external practitioner assessment in the final year, and not more than 40 per cent written examination in any single course. The capstone is client verified and the Day One Assessment contributes 5 per cent of the final year mark. Assessment principles. Assessment is authentic, criterion referenced and, for every capability claim above Level 2, verified by someone other than the teaching lecturer. There is no compensation between competencies: a student must master each one, and a marginal performance in one cannot be offset by strength in another. Feedback is returned quickly, within seven days of a block closing in the Block Sequence, so that it can inform the next unit. A student who does not yet meet the standard is given a further, structured attempt under Part E rather than being carried forward, which protects the value of the award while supporting progression. Reasonable adjustments for disability are made under Part D without altering the competency standard.
Work-integrated learning
Students complete COP 190 Workplace Immersion in the Year 1 recess term, COP 290 Co-operative Education Placement I (six months, paid, assessed) and COP 390 Co-operative Education Placement II (six months, paid, assessed), totalling not fewer than twelve months. Placement hosts are contracted by the Co-operative Education Office. The employer completes a structured capability assessment carrying 40 to 50 per cent of the placement mark and signs the capability claims that enter the Capability Passport. Online students are placed with accredited hosts in their own city or country under remote academic supervision, or have their existing employment accredited as the placement site under Part D4.
Your week at Forward
A typical week on Bachelor of Science in Skills and Workforce Systems
Path One, the Term Model: your own pace across a six-month term, one live session a week, short flexible lessons, and assessment on demand.
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Curriculum explorer
Drill into the degree, step by step
Choose a study path, then a year, then a term or block, then a course. Credit totals add up as you go, and every course shows what comes before it and what it unlocks.
Step 1, choose a year
Step 2, choose a term
TERM 1 (SIX MONTHS) | FORMERLY YEAR 1, SEMESTER 1 | YEAR 1 | 22
Year 1 · this step is worth 22 CU
Cumulative
22
Programme total
132
22 CU of 132 CU completed by the end of this step (17%)
Step 3, choose a course
Pick a course to see the detail
Credits, assessment, prerequisites and what each course unlocks later.
The twelve Forward capabilities
What this programme develops in you
Every Forward degree develops the same twelve cross-cutting capabilities. The profile below is the level this programme is designed to develop and verify by graduation, on the four-level scale in Part B2 of the Curriculum Compendium. Every claim above Level 2 is verified by someone other than the teaching lecturer.
- C1Intelligent Systems FluencyLevel 3 of 4, Independent
- C2Quantitative and Evidential Reasoning CriticalLevel 4 of 4, Leading
- C3Ethical and Contextual JudgementLevel 3 of 4, Independent
- C4Communication and Persuasion CriticalLevel 4 of 4, Leading
- C5Disciplinary MasteryLevel 3 of 4, Independent
- C6Technical Production and CraftLevel 3 of 4, Independent
- C7Problem Framing and Systems Thinking CriticalLevel 4 of 4, Leading
- C8Collaboration and Multidisciplinary TeamingLevel 4 of 4, Leading
- C9Enterprise, Value and Commercial Literacy CriticalLevel 4 of 4, Leading
- C10Professional Conduct and Workplace PerformanceLevel 4 of 4, Leading
- C11Learning to Learn and Adaptive CapacityLevel 4 of 4, Leading
- C12Stewardship and Public ContributionLevel 4 of 4, Leading
Critical capabilities for this programme: Quantitative and Evidential Reasoning · Communication and Persuasion · Problem Framing and Systems Thinking · Enterprise, Value and Commercial Literacy. A graduate cannot pass out of this programme below the stated level on any capability marked critical.
Programme Learning Outcomes
What you will be able to do
Each outcome is assessed, and each is tagged with the Forward capabilities it is verified against.
- PLO 1Analyse a labour market and the skills it needs with data.
- PLO 2Design competency based training and qualifications to a standard.
- PLO 3Design pathways that connect learning to work.
- PLO 4Measure whether training leads to employment and outcomes.
- PLO 5Analyse workforce and skills data to guide a decision.
- PLO 6Apply intelligent systems to skills matching and workforce analysis.
- PLO 7Design and manage a workforce or skills programme.
- PLO 8Work with employers, C3, C learners and institutions to build a system.
- PLO 9Cost, pitch and defend a C8 workforce solution or venture to a decision maker.
- PLO 10Acquire and demonstrate C10 a new capability without formal instruction, evidenced in the Capability Passport.
Why this programme exists
Uganda has one of the youngest populations on earth and one of the widest gaps between what young people can do and what employers need, and closing it is a systems problem: skills analysis, training design, workforce data, and the machinery that connects learning to work. Almost nobody is trained to build and run that machinery. This programme builds the workforce systems professional who can analyse the skills a labour market needs, design the training and pathways to supply them, and measure whether they lead to jobs, with real workforce data and real programmes from Year 1. It is directly aligned to the competency based education agenda of the national framework.
Admission requirements
Uganda Advanced Certificate of Education with two principal passes; plus Uganda Certificate of Education with five passes including Mathematics and English. Applicants complete a structured reasoning task scored against Capabilities C2 and C7. All applicants must demonstrate competence in English, the language of instruction, through their qualifications or an approved proficiency test under Part A. International and non standard qualifications are assessed for equivalence against the profile above under the Credential Portability provisions, so that a suitably prepared applicant may enter from anywhere in the world. Selection considers the whole application, including the structured admission task, and is conducted without discrimination under the University's admissions policy. Alternative pathways: Foundation Year, diploma entry with advanced standing, mature age entry and recognition of prior learning, all governed by Part A5 and Part G. Online applicants additionally complete the compulsory Digital Readiness orientation under Part D6.
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