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.

Explore our courses

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:

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.

More about Diploma to Degree

Deliver SQA Advanced qualifications

To get started:

  1. Become a centre - we check your organisation (centre) has the systems in place for delivery of SQA qualifications.
  2. 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.

Learn about delivering SQA qualifications

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.

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.

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:

MQA

The Malaysian Qualifications Agency (MQA) has formally recognised SQA Advanced Diplomas, confirming their alignment with Malaysia’s national qualifications framework. This recognition highlights the international quality and transferability of SQA qualifications and supports learner progression to further study and employment in Malaysia. Read more about the MQA recognition.