Does a professional qualification need to lead to a Degree?

19 February 2019

There are many security related courses that highlight the fact that they account for credits towards one type of degree or another, this post is to establish whether a Level 5 short course needs to actually earn credits towards a degree or not.

There may be a slim amount of benefit from attending a course that markets itself as ‘accounting for 30 credits towards said degree’ but is this more a marketing trick? ASTA found that many professionals undertaking a professional short course at Level 5 were more interested in the knowledge that they would gain from that course alone, and that if they chose Higher Education (degree level) then they would not choose that degree based on the ‘credits’ they had already gained from attending a shorter security course (Level 5 or similar).

However, it is vital to ensure that any course (at any level) does have some form of accreditation/acknowledgement, and furthermore that the course is recognised on an industry level. There are many ways to guarantee the quality of courses and this can be achieved internally and externally, for example ASTA look to have their Level 3 to 5 courses accredited and recognised by external organisations including Industry Qualifications, CPD UK and the Chartered International Institute of Security and Crisis Management (CIISCM), to name just a few.

As a professional training organisation then we do not feel that the benefit of having our training programs affiliated with a University Degree is relevant to our potential students and that the focus of the courses are to develop knowledge, skills and understanding in the chosen subject. ASTA believe in Universities delivering degree level programs and for our training academy to focus on relevant and leading security training.