Level 5 Extended Diploma in IT – E-commerce

Because they are genuinely different disciplines. Selling to a business involves procurement processes, negotiated pricing, credit terms, approval chains and relationships built over years. Selling to a consumer turns on a short decision made on a small screen, where trust and friction decide everything. Teaching them together produces generalities. Splitting them lets each be taken on its own terms, which is the more useful approach.

Not really, and it is worth knowing that before you enrol. The emphasis falls on the technology and the trading models rather than on advertising, search optimisation or social campaigns. You will study how online commerce works and how to build the systems that carry it. If what you want is marketing — audiences, channels, campaigns — look for a qualification built around that instead.

Qualifi offers no explanation on the page, so this is our reading rather than its reasoning: mobile is where a great deal of consumer buying now takes place, and understanding how an application is built makes you considerably more useful to anyone selling through one. The subject is drawn from the lower stage of Qualifi's wider IT range, so it also reflects the shared architecture of these awards.

Two subjects out of twelve carry the name directly, with interface design and Android programming supporting them closely. The other eight are the general IT foundation Qualifi uses throughout its range at this level. So you are getting a broad IT qualification with a commercial specialism attached, rather than an exclusively e-commerce programme. For most employers that breadth is an advantage.

None. Every subject is compulsory. The overview text on Qualifi's page talks about elective choices, but that paragraph is shared with its general information technology award, which is the one that actually offers them. Here the programme is fixed from start to finish, so there is nothing to decide beyond whether this is the right award for you.

Three published conditions apply: you are at least eighteen, your English meets IELTS 6 or something Qualifi accepts in its place where English came to you second, and two people will put their names to a reference, with an academic referee preferred among them. Qualifi publishes no prior qualification requirement. Your approved centre then forms its own view on whether the workload is realistic for you, and that conversation is where any gaps in your background get aired.