Access to HE Diploma: Health Professionals

After successfully completing this Access to Higher Education Diploma, you’ll have a good understanding of the healthcare sector and therefore be eligible to apply to a number of health related undergraduate courses. Once you have chosen and completed your degree programme, you will be ready to begin your chosen career. Many health graduates go on to work in the NHS or even private practice. Careers open to health graduates include:

• Speech and language therapist
• Local government
• Care worker
• Teacher
• Social worker

Tutor Support

A qualified Assessor will mark your work and provide written feedback via the VLE. Your appointed Assessor will confirm contact hours once you start your learning and will be able to offer support via email correspondence. During Induction you will be provided with a Study Plan including the expected assessment schedule for your course.

The course consists of 21 Units of Study.

The course covers:

• Unit 1 (Induction Unit): Preparing for Success
• Unit 2: Preparing to Study
• Unit 3: Academic Writing Skills
• Unit 4: Preparing a Written Assignment
• Unit 5: Cell Biology
• Unit 6: The History of the National Health Service
• Unit 7: Human Nutrition & The Digestive System
• Unit 8: Social Factors in Health Care
• Unit 9: Introduction to Psychology
• Unit 10: The Roles and Responsibilities of Health Care Professionals
• Unit 11: The Human Endocrine and Nervous System
• Unit 12: Inequalities in Health and Illness
• Unit 13: The Human Musculo-skeletal System
• Unit 14: Approaches to Health
• Unit 15: The Brain & Nervous System (Psychology)
• Unit 16: Human Immunity
• Unit 17: Poverty and Health
• Unit 18: Human Disease & Prevention
• Unit 19: Study Skills Portfolio Building
• Unit 20: Human Reproduction, Growth & Development
• Unit 21: Equality and Diversity within Health Care

Assessment Method

The assessment method for this course is via a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE).

The Access to HE Diploma (Health Professionals) will be made up of a number of units and assignments. Once you have completed your first assignment to the best of your ability, you should send it back to one of the assessors for marking. Once they have graded the work and offered feedback, you should begin your next piece, drawing on feedback from the past paper. Once all of the assignments have been handed in and marked, the College will have sufficient evidence to award you with a number of credits. The Access to HE Diploma is a nationally recognised Level 3 qualification, regulated by the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA). In order to achieve this Access to HE Diploma in Health Professionals, you must achieve 60 credits in total. You should note that 45 of these credits are taken from graded units which are concerned with academic subject content. The remaining 15 credits are earned via taking ungraded units which are included to help you to develop your study skills.

How do I know if this is the right course for me?

East Sussex College Hastings offer a 14-day Induction Period for this course which enables you to assess whether both the course and the online mode of study is suitable for you. It also allows the College to assess your suitability, in particular whether you can produce work to meet the standards set by Open College Network, the awarding body.

The Access to Higher Education (HE) Diploma is a qualification, equivalent to A Level, which allows learners to go on and study at University when they did not have the relevant qualifications needed to do so. Access to HE courses are available in a wide range of different subjects and are widely recognised by UK Universities.

Learners must have a GCSE grade A-C in both Maths and English (or an equivalent), and aspire to study a healthcare related degree at university.

Access to Higher Education Diplomas are widely accepted as an alternative to 'A Levels' for University admission. The programmes have a track record of success in helping students to gain admission to University.

Learners should, however, be aware that Universities each apply their own admissions criteria, and these vary broadly depending on the reputation and popularity of the university and of the degree programme that relates to your area of interest.

This Access to HE Healthcare Professional Diploma will enable you to go on to study at university, with an eye to working in a variety of Healthcare roles.