What to do if You’re ONLY Accredited for ONE Qualification. Accredited training organisations are increasingly facing new competitors who challenge their market dominance. Most clients are ones with long histories and successful trajectories that suddenly stopped paying off.
Rethinking Qualification Accreditation: Accredited for One Qualification
Okay, to be honest, one qualification is not smart if you’ve been around for a bit.
However, even if you are only accredited for one qualification, many market growth options exist for you.
Accredited for One Qualification? Start an Extension of Scope
Let’s first consider expanding on your accreditation in case you don’t know the rules.
- Apply to the same SETA and add qualifications to your accreditation. You simply need to submit the training content, names of facilitator, assessor and moderator and you’ll be done. It’s not the same as applying for your initial accreditation.
- Apply to another SETA, but you do everything via your primary (the SETA that originally accredited you).
If you’ve only been rolling out one qualification for 3 or more years, you still haven’t explored your full market potential in that particular segment. But if you want to diversify into another sector as you believe you could have traction, then certainly go this route.
Accredited for One Qualification: How should I select what else to be accredited for?
Here are a few tips:
Look at the ‘family’ of qualifications your current one belongs to. Example:
- If you have the National Certificate: Management NQFL3, apply for Generic Management at NQF levels 5 and 4.
- If you have Business Administration NQF L5, look at other L5 qualifications your current market would be interested in or proceed to L6 or expand down and consider levels 3 and 4.
Decisions should be based on your current market traction and where you could be most competitive. We’d consider if you need to head in a new direction or strengthen current advantages.
Accredited for One Qualification: Stop seeing yourself as the owner of ONE product.
An education qualification is made up of different components which can each be monetised individually.
Your content can be delivered in two ways:
- Single unit standard
- Integrated programmes
Both create the full qualification, but:
- Single unit standard
- each unit standard is a product, sell it!
- adapt unit standard titles into exciting programme names
- diversify your market segmentation for short courses
- identify those units most relevant to critical skills, apply for funding
- Integrated programmes
- organise unit standards into market-appealing learning programmes
- check if your qualification contains a registered skills programme (get that accreditation or learn from the design)
- each programme is a product, sell it!
Rethinking your content is a simple way to target specific markets and diversify your product range.
I have limited money to invest in content for more qualifications, what can I do?
Look at adding more electives to the qualification you’re already accredited for.
Additional electives can help you offer refresher and new, but related programmes to former students. It allows you to find a way to reconnect with a market you have already been able to satisfy.
Let’s generate relevant ideas from our diverse experiences and solve pressing problems together. Leonie Hall
Accredited for One Qualification: BOOK A SESSION WITH LEONIE
I combine education and economics to identify viable solutions
