There are literally thousands of Diplomas available around the world right now. Whether they are online or offline, all of them appear to be promising the world, with varying in prices and claiming various different benefits. Which all sounds fantastic and great until you scratch beneath the surface. So, how can you tell if your Diploma is accredited?
Believe it or not, enrolling onto a Diploma course is actually the easy part. Checking or finding out if your Diploma holds accreditation is the hard part. You need to look for more than just a logo of a recognised Awarding Body (Pearson Edexcel or OTHM), colleges only need to offer one course from an Awarding Body in order to be able to show their logo on their website.
The best and most obvious way to check if a Diploma has accreditation is by contacting the Awarding Body that the course is provided through, they will be able to tell you whether or not the course is accredited. Other options, especially when looking at studying a UK Diploma, is to check on the Ofqual register of courses, if the course is fully accredited, it will appear in their list of courses.
Why does it matter if my Diploma is accredited? Well, it depends on what you want to do with the Diploma. If you just want another qualification to add to your CPD record, then the Diploma doesn’t need to be Accredited, as you’re just studying for your personal development and interest. But if you need the Diploma for entry into university, or for a new job, then it really does need to be accredited so that either the university or employer knows you have reached the high standards required for holding the qualification.
Once you have done your research into your ideal Diploma and made the decision to begin studying, then the rest really is as simple as 1,2,3! You can either search the internet for a course provider, or look through Open College’s range of Diplomas and find the one you’re looking for.