The United Kingdom’s education and qualifications system is designed to ensure consistency, quality, and transparency across all levels of learning. The Regulated Qualifications Framework (RQF) provides a structured way of recognising and comparing qualifications based on their level of difficulty and size, enabling learners and employers to understand their value and progression routes.
Ofqual (the Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation) regulates qualifications that use the rules of the RQF. Qualifications following the RQF are made up of units, which allow learners to achieve qualifications in flexible stages. Each unit carries a credit value, indicating both the amount of learning required and the level of achievement. One credit typically represents 10 hours of learning.
Learners can accumulate credits to achieve different types of qualifications:
If a qualification includes a unit that a learner has already achieved, that unit can be counted towards the new qualification. Units from different awarding organisations can also be combined to build up qualifications, offering a flexible and accessible route to achievement.
As an Ofqual-regulated awarding organisation, OTHM Qualifications operates fully within the RQF, ensuring that all qualifications are quality-assured, nationally recognised, and internationally comparable.
To support global comparability and academic mobility, OTHM qualifications also reference credit values in UK and European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS) formats.
As a general rule:
For reference:
2 UK credits = 1 ECTS credit.
ECTS credits are widely used across Europe to facilitate student mobility and academic recognition. All OTHM qualification specifications available from our website include clear reference to both UK and ECTS credit values to ensure transparency and ease of international comparability.
Qualifications Can Cross Boundaries provides a clear and accessible overview of how qualifications frameworks across the United Kingdom and Ireland correspond with one another. It serves as a practical reference for learners, educators, employers, and policymakers, helping them understand how qualifications achieved in one jurisdiction compare with those in another.
The guide also illustrates how the UK and Irish national frameworks align with European qualifications systems, supporting the international recognition of qualifications. This alignment enables learners holding OTHM qualifications to understand their standing within the global education landscape and enhances opportunities for further study, professional recognition, and employment abroad.
Within Europe, two overarching frameworks establish these correspondences: the European Qualifications Framework (EQF) and the Framework for Qualifications of the European Higher Education Area (FQ-EHEA), also known as the Bologna Framework. These frameworks promote transparency, comparability, and consistency across higher education systems, reinforcing shared commitments to quality assurance, progression, and lifelong learning across Europe.
For further details, please refer to the official publication Qualifications Can Cross Boundaries – Guide to Comparing Qualifications in the UK and Ireland, jointly developed and published by the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) on behalf of the UK and Ireland Qualifications Frameworks and Policy Group (Eighth Edition, August 2023).
For more information on the compatibility of national frameworks with European systems, please visit the official websites of the European Qualifications Framework (EQF) and ENIC-NARIC.
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