Diploma and Certificate: Know the Difference It isn’t really easy to distinguish between a certificate course and a diploma course. A lot of people interchange these terms not realizing that there’s actually a major difference between the two. These kinds of programmes are gaining a lot of liking from many people but there is a fine line of difference between the two that needs to be understood. Diplomas are basically handed over by an educational institute after a course is completed. It generally shows that the holder of this document has been successful in finishing the course as per the syllabus. They also bestow that the receiver of this document has an academic degree. Diplomas are also of a longer duration. They can be of anything between a few months or years. Diplomas are presented after completing the educational programmes with specific grades or percentages that are awarded to the student. Diplomas unlike the certificates need to be related to a particular school or other educational institutes. In most of the cases, people are awarded with these kinds of documents when they have completed their graduations from high schools. One huge advantage of these courses is that students have the option of transferring the credits obtained from their diplomas to the degrees. Many of the graduate diploma programmes enable people to take up master level courses without opting for a degree. Also, these courses save a lot of time and money on the student’s part. Completely opposed to the diplomas, certificates are much broadly classified. Firstly, to obtain one, a person need not go to an educational institute. These documents can be anything from a birth certificate, marriage certificate or a certificate for appreciation or for attending a seminar. This document basically projects a fact. In the educational scenario, these kinds of documents are given out when a student is done with the exams, or has won a contest or even in some cases on completion of certain programmes. It simply says that whatever is mentioned in the document has been accomplished by the recipient. As mentioned earlier, it is not important for a person to take up an educational program as such to acquire this type of a document. It can be obtained after completing a driving school training session as well. These kinds of courses can have a very short duration. These courses are although not a part of any educational institution, can still display that the person receiving the certificates has mastered the skill in the mentioned programmes.
Both the courses have their own merits and are yet are pretty much different in their own places. They have different things to offer, different things to learn from and should not be confused with. However, both the courses are extremely advantageous as they save a lot of time and money.