Do you learn to work, or do you work to learn? As far as making progress in your career goes, the answer to this question doesn’t really matter. If your ambition is to get ahead and earn a comfortable living for yourself and your family, and perhaps enjoy the prestige of rising to a prominent position in your industry, work, and education go hand in hand.

Successful people have the mindset that learning is a lifelong thing. They always work hard; they always stay open to developing their skills and expertise. That’s how you reach the highest levels.

This close relationship between work and learning is formally recognized in vocational qualifications such as Higher National Diplomas (HNDs). Vocational learning makes explicit the idea that gaining a new qualification can and will make a positive difference to your employment and career prospects – especially if what you learn is sector-specific and focused squarely on workplace skills.

So how much of a difference can studying for a HND make to your career ambitions? How does it compare to, say, choosing to study for a degree, or simply entering the workplace straight from school with a few A-Levels?

Here’s how an HND can make a real difference, whether you are just starting out on your chosen career path or are looking to get a foot up to the next level.

A head start

One common complaint employers make about young recruits, whether they have come straight out of school or are graduates, is that they lack job-specific know-how and skills. It takes them time to get up to speed in the workplace, and responsibility (not to mention cost) for this stage of their development falls on the employer.

HNDs aim to plug this gap by offering programmes of study geared to specific industries with a heavy slant towards hands-on learning and practical experience. The rationale is that you’re not just learning the ‘theory’ of what working in a specific industry involves. You’re getting a real-world taste and developing skills that can be directly applied to a particular job role.

This will immediately make you stand out compared to, say, a candidate with good A-Levels but little practical experience relevant to the role. In some circumstances, employers may even look more favourably on an HND versus a degree. As a Level 5 qualification, it’s only a step behind a bachelor’s degree (Level 6), so there is not much difference in terms of rigour and the level of learning. But what a HND tells an employer is that you already have the right practical skills and knowledge to hit the ground running.

Taking an HND can also give you an advantage in the recruitment process. Even if you have not had an employed role before, the work experience that HND includes will give you practical examples to draw upon when completing an application form. And during the interview process, you will again have a wealth of work-based experiences and examples to draw upon to illustrate your knowledge with.

Next steps

HNDs are far from just an option for school-leavers who are looking for more of a vocational pathway than the standard academic degree route. HNDs are also very popular with people who are already in work and have their sights set on climbing the ladder right to the very top.

There are two main reasons to consider taking a HND if you are already in work. One is the knowledge that it could boost your promotion chances by giving you an edge over other candidates when applying for more senior positions.

This is especially true for anyone who has ‘worked their way from the ground up’ in an organisation or industry, who has a wealth of experience and insider knowledge from years of hard work, but without necessarily having the formal qualifications to prove it.

Similarly, HNDs can act as a steppingstone to professional qualifications. A great example is the fact that HNDs in business and law can provide a route to accountancy and legal qualifications without having to go down the traditional degree route. This provides fantastic opportunities for people working in accounts departments and legal practices in more administrative roles who want to convert their experience into becoming a chartered accountant or legal practitioner.

The second reason to take a HND if you are already in work is if your employer (or other employers) wants you to have your skills recognised by a formal qualification, perhaps as a formal condition of reaching certain levels or pay scales. In these circumstances, you often find employers prepared to sponsor employees to take HNDs or similar qualifications or using such qualifications as part of their internal development pathways.