A new college and university network offers adults an alternative to the traditional
higher education model with lower costs, faster outcomes, greater accessibility
and higher economic returns.
If we are to meet the growing demand for adult lifelong learning, we need a better
system. For the last three years that’s what we have been building. Colleges and
universities are collaborating through College Online, to offer a more effective,
flexible and affordable route to a successful career. Up to and including a degree.
What are people looking for?
Degrees are beginning to lose their monopoly on higher education as people look for other paths to a good career.
After three decades of growth, participation in higher education has plateaued and graduates in England have more student debt than in any other country in the world.
As more people have degrees, employers’ use of the degree as the sole means of selecting people for management careers has declined and other methods to select job applicants have grown.
At the same time, digital technologies are changing jobs beyond recognition with employers hungry for knowledge that needs updating over a lifetime through lifelong learning. Increasingly employers are asking for specific technical skills, not only a degree.
Gain the leadership skills employers are looking for with our flexible online Leadership and Management HTQ. Study while you work and progress your career faster.
Until now we have lacked the system of lifelong learning that delivers these skills up to degree level, but at College Online, we want to change that.
Education’s Best Kept Secret – HTQs are valuable and 'stack' to a degree
Higher Technical Qualifications (HTQs) are one of education’s best kept secrets. Most people have heard of Foundation Degrees or Higher National Certificates and Diplomas. Few know that HTQs are exactly these things but with an added government stamp of quality.
This stamp is given to courses developed with employers and enables access to student finance to cover 100% of the tuition costs. HTQs develop the higher skills employers want. You can stack these qualifications up to and including a university degree, but without having to commit to the cost of a degree at the outset.
The costs are significantly lower because tuition fees for HNCs and HNDs are typically £6,500 compared to £9,500 for each year of studying for a degree. That is a significant saving and significantly lower debt.
HTQs can be more cost-effective
Studying for an HTQ provides a flexible path to a degree. Because you can ‘stack’ the qualifications you can step off much sooner into the career you want.
The HTQ study pathway can provide a faster route to employment
Fast-track your career with a Leadership and Management HTQ. A cost-effective, flexible route to leadership roles without committing to a full degree upfront.
HTQs Offer High Returns Relative to Degrees
The benefits of HTQs are not primarily in their lower costs, but in higher earnings. There is a growing body of research showing that not only do earnings associated with a HTQ (total tuition fees £13,000) compare well with a degree (total tuition fees £28,500) but when factors including social background are taken into account, earnings are significantly higher than with a degree.
According to the Institute for Fiscal Studies, “HTQs offer high returns relative to degrees” and there is “clear evidence that HTQs can offer a viable alternative to a degree”.
Good Learning Design Allows Online Learning while Working
Busy people need flexible access to learning at times that suit them. College Online uses high quality online resources and best-in-class technology to solve this problem, but colleges do the tutoring using the resources and technology. The College Online college and university network includes Harrow, Richmond and Uxbridge Colleges (its founding partner) and the University of Roehampton offers final year degree progression. Colleges teach the courses and are part owners of College Online.
College Online offers a different route for busy people. By combining HTQs with flexible online and blended delivery through trusted colleges and universities up to degree level, College Online aspires to help do for skills education in the 21st century, what the Open University did for degrees in the 1960s. You can study for valuable skills while working, receive expert tutoring from a trusted local public institution, access their facilities, and benefit from personal success coaching.
The first course available is in Leadership and Management but others in digital, green and health technologies are planned.
About College Online
Rod Bristow is Visiting Professor at University College London, former President at Pearson with responsibility for the UK’s largest exam board and deep partnerships with universities globally to deliver degrees online.
College Online is a network of trusted public colleges determined to offer adults a more flexible, stackable career route through high quality higher education.
College Online designs the pathways, creates the online courseware and resources for courses taught by partner colleges, provides personal ‘success’ coaching, and offers advice on course eligibility. College Online is part owned by the education sector.
The first course is a Pearson BTEC HNC in Leadership and Management which can lead to an HND (a Higher Technical Qualification) and a degree.
