The Edexcel Business and Technology Education Council (BTEC) suite of vocational qualifications are such an example, as these qualifications taken at the pre-university level (typically QCF Level 3) in appropriate subjects may also be used for entry into many universities in the United Kingdom, and are awarded points on the UCAS tariff system for application to university.
For admission into universities in the United Kingdom, the UCAS Tariff Tables awards points towards a number of vocational and skills development qualifications, including select qualifications from the Association of Accounting Technicians (AAT), Award Scheme Development and Accreditation Network (ASDAN), the British Horse Society, Council for Awards in Care, Health and Education (CACHE), Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment (CISI), City and Guilds, ifs School of Finance, Edexcel, Oxford, Cambridge and RSA Examinations (OCR), and certain educational institutions and examination boards of the performing arts.
Certain academic programmes, particularly those that allow degree completion or recognize prior learning, do not permit students to directly enter tertiary study through their programmes without some prior recognised learning experiences, and these experiences serve as alternative entry requirements for admission.
The undergraduate degree programmes of Western Governors University are one such example, requiring either prior study to associate degree level in the subject, over three years of work experiences in the field, and/or recently acquired or updated transferable IT certifications from which partial or full course module credit may be obtained.
[3] Select universities additionally offer opportunities for alternative entry into postgraduate study, through completion of professional or alternative academic qualifications designed for prospective applicants lacking completed undergraduate study who might have otherwise qualified for their postgraduate academic programmes.
The University of Leicester offers such opportunities, such as entry into the MSc in Management programme[4] with a Professional Diploma in Management[5] Alternative entry into postgraduate programmes may also be granted by partial completion of courses taken as part of the full postgraduate academic qualification.
Upon successful completion of the requirements for a lower level qualification, a higher level qualification may be completed; a full degree may be obtained through a "top-up" or transfer of credit programme, typically covering the final year or final two years of study for the degree.
Primary and secondary schools may offer the option for credit by examination, by which a student gains credit for select classes or exemption from certain requirements for graduation or progression onto more advanced grade levels through successful completion of an examination with a sufficiently high score to validate the student's knowledge of the subjects covered and readiness to progress forward onto the next level of study.
Such vocational qualification may have been received as part of an apprenticeship, earned in a formal educational programme, or studied for independently.
Oxford Brookes University in the United Kingdom, as an example, has a unique partnership with the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), by which those who have successfully completed the Fundamental Skills papers F1 to F9 of the ACCA qualification as well as the Professional Ethics module may directly enter into the final research and analysis module of the BSc (Hons) Applied Accounting degree programme; upon successful submission of a Research and Analysis Project, students are then awarded the degree.
[15] Conversely, credit towards ACCA papers may be obtained for completion of modules as part of relevant Oxford Brookes Business School accounting and finance degree programmes.
The IT Masters programme of Charles Sturt University in Australia, as an example, offers academic credit and exemption from select otherwise compulsory industry elective courses, as part of its master's degree and graduate certificate programmes, for a number of professional certifications in the fields of information technology and project management.
[19] Additionally, students of undergraduate and select graduate degree programmes in information technology at Western Governors University may be awarded credit towards select course modules and competency requirements for a number of industry certifications in the field, including certain of those from Cisco, CIW, CompTIA, ISC2, Microsoft, Project Management Institute, Oracle, GIAC, and IBM.
[23] For awarding of credit through this route, a portfolio reflecting transcripts or other evidence of relevant non-credit prior learning that is sufficiently difficult and rigorous to equate to degree level study is generally submitted for consideration.