IHETC Academy

72 professional qualifications, each naming one trade

A professional qualification targets a trade, not a subject. It addresses whoever wants to enter one, return to one or change to one, and is prepared against a published framework, competency block by competency block.

What a professional qualification targets

A continuing-education certificate addresses someone already in post: it consolidates a role under way. A professional qualification takes the opposite end — it targets entry into a named trade, and builds everything needed to practise it.

A trade named in plain words, never a subject heading
A published framework, split into assessable competency blocks
A stated volume of supervised hours, which we can be held to
A level of responsibility, from skilled execution to executive command

The filed catalogue, in figures

These totals are recomputed from the catalogue, never copied across. The conversion rule is constant from one qualification to the next: one credit is worth 25 hours of work, of which 10 are supervised.

qualifications in the catalogue: 72
levels of responsibility: 4
credits in total: 4 975
supervised, in total: 49 750 h

How the four levels break down

A level is defined by the responsibility exercised, never by hours attended. This breakdown says where the catalogue is densest, and therefore where the door into a trade opens widest.

Level 4 — Skilled employee and operative: 20 (28 %)
Level 5 — Senior technician and supervisor: 18 (25 %)
Level 6 — Manager and professional: 17 (24 %)
Level 7 — Expert and executive: 17 (24 %)

Total: 72 professional qualifications

What each level covers

Credits and hours read level by level: they state the step to climb, and the time it genuinely represents. Each row leads to the level page, where qualifications are listed one by one.

Level	What it prepares for	Qualifications	Credits	Supervised hours
Level 4	Skilled employee and operative	20	1 180	11 800 h
Level 5	Senior technician and supervisor	18	1 270	12 700 h
Level 6	Manager and professional	17	1 335	13 350 h
Level 7	Expert and executive	17	1 190	11 900 h

Questions about professional qualifications

How does it differ from a catalogue certification?

The certification consolidates a role you already hold, over a few weeks. The professional qualification prepares entry into a named trade, against a complete framework and several hundred supervised hours.

How do I choose my level?

By the responsibility you want to exercise, not by time already served. The four level pages describe that responsibility in concrete acts: the one that describes your next step is the right one.

Where do these hour volumes come from?

From the official filed catalogue, part by part. They are taken without alteration and recomputed on display: this is what an equivalence office checks first, and it must be right to the credit.

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