The correct level depends on your level of experience. Level 3 is the entry level qualification for those who are just starting out in their career (facilities assistants, facilities coordinators) or planning to move into Facilities Management but without having any experience yet. The level 4 is best for lower to middle managers (e.g. assistant facilities managers or facilities managers), the level 5 for more senior middle managers (senior facilities manager, regional facilities manager) and the level 6 is for senior management (head of FM, facilities director).

It’s important to get the right level as the assignments will ask you to draw on your experience in order to answer the questions. So an ambitious (or deluded!) junior manager who wants to do the level 5 or 6 would struggle, regardless of their intelligence or previous level of academic achievement, because they wouldn’t have the experience to apply to the assessment questions.

The best starting point to determine the correct level is to try the One-Minute-Leveller tool.

It’s a short questionnaire which asks a few questions about your role and then determines the best level depending on the answers. We’ve found this around 95% accurate at predicting the correct level when the questions are answered honestly, however if you’re still not sure about the result we can arrange a chat with one of our tutors who can go into more depth and help you decide.

You are given a 2 year period to complete the qualification, regardless of the level or size (Award, Certificate or Diploma). However, given that the qualifications are studied through distance learning, it is very much down to the amount of time you are able to devote to studying and completing the assignments.

Typically for a well organised student it takes around 3-4 months to complete an Award, 6-8 months to complete a Certificate and 12-14 months to complete a Diploma. However some have managed to complete much faster, while others have gone right up to their 2-year deadline.

Level 3 – With approximately 1 year of experience and a level 3 qualification, you can expect to be awarded Associate Membership of IWFM (AIWFM). Without the qualification, you would need 2 years of experience.

Levels 4 and 5 – With 2 years of experience and a Level 4 qualification, you can expect to be awarded full membership (MIWFM). Without the qualification you would need 5 years of experience.

Level 6 – Level 6 unlocks the way to achieving Certified Membership (CIWFM). A Level 6 Diploma, coupled with at least 2 years experience in the industry and 3 years of management experience will qualify you for CIWFM status.

The different levels correspond mainly with the strategic level that you are operating at. So, for example, a level 3 qualification will focus more on the basics of operational, day-to-day FM, whereas the level 6 focuses more on setting and delivering long-term FM strategies and making sure that the FM department is aligned with and supportive of the overall business strategy.

Although we do teach about the importance of strategic thinking and seeing the bigger picture across all of the levels, it becomes more important the higher up you go when it comes to both completing the assignments and applying your knowledge to your role.

The difference between the three is purely the number credits you must achieve to complete the qualification and therefore the number of units you will study. So for example, a Level 4 Award will consist of 2 or 3 units, the Certificate will require 4-5 units and the Diploma is usually 10 units. The greater the size of qualification, the greater the breadth of knowledge you will gain by undertaking your studies.

Each qualification has at least one mandatory unit that must be completed, but the remaining credits can be made up using a choice of optional units from the selection that we offer.

All of the qualifications are assessed by coursework assignments – there are no exams. For our distance learning courses, there is one assignment for each unit. These are usually in essay format but with prompts or questions to help address each of the assessment criteria (it’s not just a case of ‘write 3000 words about procurement’, it’s more structured).

As they are working through their assignments, students can submit them to us for interim feedback to make sure they are on the right lines and demonstrating understanding of the learning objectives. We won’t give them the answers of course, but we will highlight areas that may need clarification or further explanation.

Once you have acquired enough credits, you will have achieved the qualification.

While this style of assessment suits the vast majority of people, for those who may struggle with the format we can offer alternative forms of assessment. For example, if someone suffers from dyslexia and finds it difficult to write large texts, we can offer the chance to provide audio or video recordings or alternatively facilitate a professional discussion with one of our tutors, where they will be asked a series of questions in a face-to-face interview in order to demonstrate their understanding of the material.

The only exception to this is the Qual-in-a-Week intensive course. This is only available for the Level 4 Award. On this course, the assessment is built into the format of the course and so is undertaken over the course of the week. This can include multiple choice tests, short written answers, presentations and culminates in a professional discussion on the last day, which aims to both test any areas not yet covered as well as give students the opportunity to address any shortcomings they may have had earlier in the course.

The idea behind the intensive course is that all tuition and assessment is completed with the 5-day period. Often on these kind of courses it’s a week of tuition and then students have to go away and complete the assessments in their own time, but the Qual-in-a-Week has been designed so that people complete everything in just a week.