Computing (Extended) Diploma Level 3

You will learn new skills through lec­tures, demon­stra­tions, e‑learning, pri­vate study, prac­ti­cal work­shops, inves­tiga­tive work, case stud­ies, guest speak­ers and group work.

5 GCSEs at grades 4/C or above includ­ing Eng­lish and a 6/B in maths.

Alter­na­tive­ly, a Mer­it in a rel­e­vant Lev­el 2 Diplo­ma, and a GCSE grade 4/C in Eng­lish and maths, or a pass for func­tion­al skills Lev­el 2 Eng­lish and Maths.

We will review each appli­ca­tion on a case-by-case basis to ensure you get a place on the course most suit­able for you. One of the ways we do this is through a very effec­tive ​‘6 weeks to suc­cess’ pro­gramme that oper­ates from the first day you start your course. This includes sup­port such as (but not lim­it­ed to):

• Allow­ing you to change cours­es if you change your mind in the first 6 weeks — sub­ject to course availability

• Mov­ing you between course lev­els if you are find­ing your cur­rent lev­el too easy / too hard — sub­ject to course availability

• One-to-one reviews with your aca­d­e­m­ic tutor to ensure you are pro­gress­ing and achiev­ing well

A Mer­it in your first year is required to enter the sec­ond year Extend­ed Diploma.

There are four exter­nal­ly set and marked assess­ments, two are writ­ten exam­i­na­tions and two are con­trolled assess­ments. The remain­ing assess­ments con­sist of inter­nal­ly set and marked assignments.

On suc­cess­ful com­ple­tion of this course you can progress on to the HND in Com­put­ing and Infor­ma­tion Sys­tems at Uni­ver­si­ty Cen­tre Peter­bor­ough or oth­er degrees at Uni­ver­si­ty. You could also enter employ­ment as a:

• Web Design­er
• Net­work Administrator
• Help-desk Ana­lyst
• Soft­ware Developer
• Sys­tems Analyst
• Teacher

You will study a range of units including:

• Prin­ci­ples of Com­put­er Science
• Fun­da­men­tals of Com­put­er Systems
• Plan­ning and Man­age­ment of Com­put­ing Projects
• Soft­ware Design and Development
• IT Sys­tems Secu­ri­ty and Encryption
• Busi­ness Appli­ca­tions of Social Media
• The Impact of Computing
• Human Com­put­er Intervention
• Com­put­er Games Development
• Web­site Development
• Object-Ori­ent­ed Programming
• Com­put­er Networking
• Man­ag­ing and Sup­port­ing Systems

You will have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to take part in exter­nal trips, such as Alton Tow­ers, Bletch­ley Park Com­put­er Muse­um and Ama­zon amongst oth­ers. You will meet a range of guest speak­ers from the indus­try to give you top tips for advanc­ing your career in IT.