Management Qualifications - An Overview

Let’s start with the foundation, introductory, courses, suitable for those who are taking a first step into the world of management, whether it is as an employee in an organisation, or as a budding entrepreneur.

In this band there are a large number of options, ranging from individual short courses, focusing on skills needed in areas such as teamwork, basic budgeting, project management, decision making and quality.

Many organisations run in-house courses in these areas, but it there are also many providers who offer them full qualifications that are stand-alone but also the first step on the management ladder, include the Higher National Certificate and then the Diploma, the HNC and HND, highly regarded national and internationally recognised qualifications, usually taking 2 academic years if studied at college, or 18 months if by distance learning. These, relative to management, include the HNC / HND in Business and Management, Finance, Marketing, Law and Human Resources.

NVQs (national vocational qualifications) in Management are "competence" based which means, in essence, that the student must show evidence, must prove that she/he is competent in management at the level, and to the criteria, described in that particular NVQ. These are banded at, Level 3: introductory / newcomer to management, Level 4: suitable for reasonably experienced junior to middle managers, Level 5: aimed at experienced, knowledgeable managers at middle to senior level and Level 7: aimed at strategic managers. NVQs are popular with large, bureucratic organisations, that need to be certain that their managers at all levels are, provably, "competent".

Another group is the "professional development awards" including: Professional Development Certificate in Management and Professional Development Diploma in Management and Advanced Professional Development Diploma in Management. These are also banded at Level 3, Level 4, Level 5, and Level 7 in similar fashion to the NVQs, because these qualifications are accepted as being in the "national qualifications framework" or NQF. Some providers offer variations of these, with the CMS Certificate in Management Studies and the DMS Diploma in Management Studies being the most popular.

The Diploma in Management Studies is the UK’s most widely recognised management qualification the "manager’s management qualification" and is the qualification that most organisations expect their middle to senior managers, and professional specialists, to hold. In case you’re thinking what about the MBA, for every MBA holder in the UK there is 100 with a DMS and 99% of those will not go on to, will not need to go on to, an MBA.

Masters, MA, Msc, MBA these are the next band, and are the highest "management" qualifications, not only in the UK but also in most countries around the world but, there are thousands of variations in content available, and considerable variation in quality and relevance, so choosing a suitable, appropriate quality, one of these is fraught with difficulty

If you are thinking what about PhDs, doctorates, yes, they are "higher" level, but they don’t in my view, truly fit into "management courses" because they are, and meant to be, academic in nature and not designed to improve the individual’s management skills.