About SQA Advanced Certificates and Diplomas
SQA Advanced qualifications are Higher Education qualifications - developed in partnership with colleges, universities and industry - and enabling advanced entry into many undergraduate degree programmes in universities and higher education institutions across the world.
Achieving an SQA Advanced Certificate or SQA Advanced Diploma is one of the best ways to develop your career or progress into further studies.
What is an SQA Advanced Certificate or Diploma?
SQA Advanced Certificates and SQA Advanced Diplomas provide practical skills and the theoretical knowledge needed to do a job.
The courses are made up of Units:
- SQA Advanced Certificates are made up of 96 SCQF credit points and usually take one year to complete
- SQA Advanced Diplomas are made up of 240 SCQF credit points and usually take two years to complete
Guide to SQA Advanced Qualifications (2.26 MB)
SQA Advanced qualifications - a pathway to higher education
Learners study in their own country before moving abroad to complete a degree, entering directly into second or third year. This option is a cost effective route to studying abroad and achieving a degree at an international higher education institution.
Diploma to Degree
We make this journey as smooth as possible through our Diploma to Degree programme. SQA has articulation agreements with highly regarded international institutions. These institutions recognise SQA Advanced qualifications for advanced entry.
Deliver SQA Advanced qualifications
To get started:
- Become a centre - we check your organisation (centre) has the systems in place for delivery of SQA qualifications.
- Choose your qualification - we check your centre has the relevant resources to deliver and assess the qualification.
Our team makes the process as smooth as possible.
Recognition/Credential evaluation
Our qualifications have been fully evaluated by a number of organisations, comparing them like for like against other countries education systems. This helps to demonstrate the quality and credibility of our qualifications as they are recognised around the world.
ACEI
The Academic Credentials Evaluation Institute (ACEI) is a Charter and Endorsed Member of the Association of International Credential Evaluators (AICE), a not-for-profit professional association recognized by the U.S. Department of Education that approves and endorses private credential evaluation services in the U.S. ACEI is dedicated to the advancement of international academic exchange and understanding through the dissemination of information on world educational systems and evaluation of international educational credentials.
The following SQA Advanced Qualifications were evaluated by ACEI to understand their equivalency in the US education system.
- SQA Advanced Certificate Business (1.82 MB)
- SQA Advanced Diploma Accounting (1.64 MB)
- SQA Advanced Diploma Business (1.64 MB)
- SQA Advanced Diploma Computing: Software Development (1.64 MB)
WES Canada
World Education Services Canada are a non-profit organization dedicated to helping international students and professionals achieve their educational and professional goals in the United States and Canada. They evaluate and advocate for the recognition of international education qualifications.
The following SQA Advanced Qualifications were evaluated by WES Canada to understand their equivalency in the Canadian education system.
- SQA Advanced Certificate Business (228 KB)
- SQA Advanced Diploma Accounting (273 KB)
- SQA Advanced Diploma Business (271 KB)
- SQA Advanced Diploma Computing: Software Development (271 KB)
Ecctis Ltd
Ecctis is a provider of services in the recognition and evaluation of qualifications and skills. Ecctis operates official recognition services on behalf of the UK Government and completed a study to benchmark SQA Advanced Qualifications in seven education systems:
- UK (417 KB)
- US (379 KB)
- Sri Lanka (431 KB)
- New Zealand (336 KB)
- China (452 KB)
- Canada (333 KB)
- Australia (308 KB)