Are you looking for getting a diploma course for enhancing your skills and employment opportunities? While there are lots of diploma courses offered in the UK, you need to choose the one that is going to be beneficial for your career. There are some professional courses that might open up your roads towards achieving your dream position.
Being educated doesn’t only focus on being able to differentiate between right and wrong. Education also means the eradication of illiteracy, both at the personal and the social level. It helps to remove the myths or superstitions that are often malicious for the health of the community. It also increases one’s knowledge about the importance of promoting good health and safety conditions in every sphere of life.
It also makes a person self-confident. It prepares one to achieve higher positions at work and in the future course of action. Education also has the power to make you a good human being.
One needs to pursue either, a degree or a diploma course, depending upon the type of career options one wants to follow. Therefore, it is important to choose the right course of study and go for a diploma degree course that would suit your career requirements.
Types of Diploma Course in the UK
A diploma degree in the UK can refer to various kinds of qualifications. There can be at least 4 different types of higher education diploma courses in the country, including
- Diploma of Higher Education – It involves a two-year university study, which is lower than a course for a Bachelor’s Degree. It is often provided as an ‘exit qualification’ in case a candidate has failed to maintain enough marks to continue with his/her degree course.
- Higher National Diploma – This is a course owned by Pearson, but is conducted by several universities and colleges under licence. It is quite similar in position as that of the Diploma of Higher Education but is more vocational in nature.
- Graduate Diploma – This is a one-year course at the Bachelor’s Degree final year level. Usually, this is taken by people who have already completed their Bachelor’s Degree.
- Postgraduate Diploma – This is a Master’s Degree-level qualification. It is a one-year course, the syllabus of which often corresponds to that of the Master’s Degree course of the same – only without the research project.
Apart from these, there are also diploma courses at all levels, such as the Regulated Qualifications Framework, which include various kinds of vocational qualifications. The nomenclature of such a course takes the form of Level N Diploma, where ‘N’ denotes any number from 1-8, signifying the level of the framework. These courses involve a minimum of 370 hours of study.
For example, a diploma course at Level 4 or above is considered a higher education qualification. Level 4 is equivalent to first-year undergraduate, Level 5 to second-year undergraduate, and Level 6 equals the final year of a Bachelor’s Degree. Level 7, on the other hand, is the equivalent to a Master’s Degree and Level 8 equals a Doctorate.
These Regulated Qualifications Framework diploma courses in the UK are the highest of the three primary forms of qualifications, namely diploma, certificate and award.
There are certain diploma distance learning courses, some of which offer either a physical class programme of once or twice a week meetings, or even of a greater interval, while some courses do offer options for studying online, without the need for attending physical classes.
What is the Difference Between a Degree and a Diploma Course?
In order to get the right career choices, it is essential for you to know how a diploma course is different from a degree course.
- A diploma is a short term course that can last for a maximum of 2 years. A degree, on the other hand, is a long term course, varying between 3-4 years of study for a Bachelor’s Degree, and for 2 years for a higher than a Bachelor’s level
- A degree course generally carries more value than a corresponding diploma course, and also provides more in-depth knowledge on a particular subject. It opens up a higher number of opportunities than a diploma course. In fact, most employers expect their applicants to hold a Bachelor’s Degree.
A diploma course, on the other hand, has a comparatively lower value in terms of employment opportunities. It focuses mainly on training in a particular field.
- A degree course is given by autonomous universities, while a diploma course is generally offered by various educational institutions, such as colleges.
- A degree course programme, no doubt, offers a better learning experience than a diploma course. Both are available at all levels of study, right from Bachelor’s, postgraduate, and Masters level to associate level as well.
Advantages of Getting a Diploma Course
Diploma courses do have their own benefits. If you are crunched for time and money, a diploma course would be the right choice. Moreover, since most of the postgraduate diploma courses are vocational, and if you have a particular goal or career choice in mind, then applying for a relevant diploma course programme would be better than pursuing a Master’s Degree. Diploma courses are more professional-based and focus on preparing the candidate for getting an appropriate job by enhancing their practical skills.
For example, if you are looking forward to enhancing your writing skills and getting a job in content writing or digital marketing, a 1-2 year diploma course would be more beneficial, than spending years in a similar degree programme.
