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Framework

Central Awards (CA) accredited and regulated qualifications follow the UK's Regulated Qualifications Framework (RQF).

The UK’s RQF categorises qualifications based on the nature of their complexity and time needed to gain proficiency in the area of that subject, from which the size and level of the qualification is set.

Understand RQF Level

​​The Levels represent the difficulty, then the qualifications are classified according to their total time and credits, in to an Award, Certificate or Diploma at the level, as follows:

Award

This is the smallest qualification and is usually made up of 13 Credits and requires 130 hours to complete. Therefore an Award will have the fewest number of units / modules.

Certificate

These are the next step-up from Award and is a medium-sized qualification usually made up of between 13 Credits to 37 Credits and require between 130 - 370 hours to complete. Therefore a Certificate may have more units / modules as compared to an Award.

Diploma

These are the largest sized qualifications, they require 37+ Credits and 370+ hours to complete. Diplomas offer a variety of subjects, are complex and develop skills and knowledge to an optimal level in the subject area.