Diplomas are academic qualifications and therefore legal documents that serve as proof that the Diploma holder successfully completed a specific Diploma course. The exact level of qualification could vary from country to country, but in South Africa, as in the United Kingdom, Diplomas are regarded as higher learning or tertiary qualifications. This means that a Diploma falls in a category above Certificates, but just below Bachelor Degrees. One could therefore safely assume that Diploma courses are considered to be more advanced than that of Certificate programmes, whilst they do not yet meet the exact academic standard as that of Degrees.
Most Colleges offer Diploma courses which could vary in duration (length), but they usually stretch over a two-year period. Advanced Diploma courses could take a bit longer, depending on the programme content.
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