Someone I know did an ILM course - Institute of Leadership & Management. She's a first-time team leader with a couple of O'levels and ECDL level 2 by way of any other qualifications, and the course took her around six months to complete - certainly no more than a year. It was part-time and she was allowed a couple of hours a week at work to study it. Any idea what NQF level this would have been at.
I suspect it's a level 2 course she's done, but she's now hoping that it will get her into a part-time/distance learning degree course. I somehow doubt that unless she goes to the Open University then she's going to be sorely disappointed, even as a mature student. I would like to tell her so but she seems to think I know nothing about these things so I know she wouldn't listen to me. Just wondering if anywhere else is likely to accept her on the strength of what qualifications she has.
The 'levels' used by the ILM, to describe their courses, match those used by the national Qualifications & Credit Framework (which has replaced NQF). It seems likely that the person you're referring to took one of the Level 2 courses from this list:
http://www.i-l-m.com/learn-with-ilm/847.aspx
That's equivalent to a single GCSE pass at grade A to C. (See 'The Framework in England', here, for an explanation of the different levels:
http://www.i-l-m.com/learn-with-ilm/1386.aspx )
That's pretty much as I thought, Chris, thanks. Methinks she's going to spend some time figuring out that it's not enough for a conventional degree course before she relents and goes down the OU route.