What are management qualifications

Obtaining a management qualification is regarded as the best way of demonstrating to employers and your team that you are a professional manager possessing high levels of management skills.

However, it can be difficult to decide what kind of management course or qualification, and where to study, when there seems to be so many options.

Genuine qualifications in the UK can only be certificated by Awarding Bodies. In the UK this means an organisation that has undergone a strict approval process (see Ofqual website) or an organisation such as a university that has powers to create and award their own qualifications.

In the UK the two leading awarding bodies that specialise in awarding management qualifications are the Chartered Management Institute and the Institute of Leadership and Management.   

Management qualifications that are designed by recognised awarding bodies have to be approved by the Qualifications Curriculum Authority www.qca.org.uk, who will check that they are fit for purpose and meet national standards, making sure that the content and level meet national standards.

Approved centres deliver the training and assessment for these recognised management qualifications. You can see an example of an approved centre at www.managers.gb.com. The awarding bodies are responsible for vetting training centres to make sure that they have all the skills and facilities needed to deliver high quality learning and assessment. This is a strict process and the awarding bodies External Verifiers make sure these standards are maintained by regularly visiting them.

So unless a training organisation is an approved centre, any piece of paper you will receive at the end of a management course will not be a ‘real’ qualification.

Before choosing which management qualification to study you should consider the following questions:

·         Which awarding body

·         What type of study method, e.g. distance learning or classroom

·         Where to study

·         What level of study

·         What kind of qualification

·         Costs

You can get more help on each of those questions from the links in the side menu bar.