Level 3 Extended Diploma in Business Management

At a glance

• Level3 (RQF)
• Credits180
• Total qualification timeSee specification
• Guided learning hoursSee specification
• Awarding bodyQualifi
• Ofqual number610/5596/7
• Units18 mandatory, 0 optional
• UCAS TariffNone
• Duration9 months (standard) or 6 months (fast track)
• Study modesOnline, Blended, Evening classes
• FeesFrom £999 (9 months, standard) or £1,299 (6 months, fast track)
• Next intakeRolling intake — course starts when the fee is paid

Level, credits, hours, Ofqual number and unit list are taken from the Qualifi qualification specification (PDF) and the Ofqual register. Duration, study modes, fees and intake dates are set by LSPM, not by this site, and are confirmed by its admissions team.

In brief

At 180 credits this Extended Diploma is half again the size of the 120-credit diplomas and three times a 60-credit one. Qualifi has built it as a complete pre-degree year: English for Studies in Higher Education and Communication and Cultural Skills for Higher Education open the programme, and the remaining sixteen units cover the business environment, resources, marketing, human resource management, finance, operations, leadership, workplace welfare and a strand of four entrepreneurship units.

The entrepreneurship strand is what distinguishes it from the OTHM business diplomas: Innovation for Business, Entrepreneurship and Entrepreneurial Business Planning, Entrepreneurial Marketing and Thinking Entrepreneurially together amount to a small business-start-up course inside the diploma. If you have an idea you want to test, this is where you test it on paper.

Qualifi publishes the credit and hours detail for this diploma in the specification itself rather than as separate per-unit figures, which is why the units table says see specification. The PDF is linked below and is the document to rely on.

Written by Education adviser, CogniPath Education. Not by LSPM. Facts checked against the awarding body specification and the Ofqual register, September 2026.

Who it suits, and who it does not

What you study

18 mandatory units. There are no optional units, so every learner on the programme covers the same ground.

Unit titles and credit values from the Qualifi qualification specification (PDF). Where the specification does not state a credit value for a unit, the cell reads See spec.

Eighteen units is a lot to hold in your head, so LSPM teaches them in six blocks of three and starts each block with the unit that carries the most reading. The two higher education English units run through the whole year as a spine rather than being finished early and forgotten.

Entry requirements

Qualifi sets the formal entry criteria for this qualification and LSPM, as the approved centre, applies them when it admits learners. As published by the awarding body:

• Approved Centres are responsible for reviewing and making decisions as to the applicant’s ability to complete the learning programme successfully and meet the demands of the qualification.
• The initial assessment by the centre, will need to consider the support that is readily available or can be made available to meet individual learner needs as appropriate.The qualifications have been designed to be accessible without artificial barriers that restrict access, for this qualification applicants must be aged 18 or over.In the case of applicants whose first language is not English, then IELTS 6 (or equivalent) is required.
• International qualifications will be checked for appropriate enrolment to UK higher education postgraduate programmes where applicable.
• The applicants are normally required to produce two supporting references, at least one of which should preferably be academic.

Qualifi asks for applicants to be 18 or over for this qualification and, where English is not a first language, IELTS 6 or equivalent. Two references are normally required, and Qualifi prefers at least one to be academic. We help applicants who have been out of education find a referee LSPM will accept; a line manager or a volunteering coordinator usually is.

Source: the Qualifi qualification specification (PDF), which is the definitive statement of the awarding body's criteria. LSPM's admissions team decides eligibility; ask us first if you are unsure whether you meet them.

How you are assessed

Assignment-based throughout, with one piece of assessed work per unit. The entrepreneurship units build towards a business plan that develops across four assignments rather than being written fresh each time. Assessed by LSPM's tutors and subject to Qualifi's external quality assurance.

Assessment is regulated by Qualifi under Ofqual's conditions. How awarding bodies and regulation work.

Where it leads: progression to Level 4

This diploma is designed as a direct feeder into Level 4 business and management study, and that is the progression LSPM offers. A learner who completes it should find the first term of a Level 4 diploma familiar in method even where the content is new, because the study skills have already been practised across eighteen assignments.

It does not carry UCAS Tariff points. Some universities will, at their own discretion, look at a holder for first-year entry to a business degree, and the two higher education English units would help such an application, but no institution is obliged to and we name none.

If you want to compare Level 4 subjects in business and management before committing to this extended diploma, our sibling site level4diploma.org is written for exactly that question.

Questions about this programme

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