Four units, one of them leadership: a Level 5 security diploma for people who will run the response, not just perform it.
Level, credits, hours, units and Ofqual number are taken from the Qualifi specification and the Ofqual register. Duration, study modes, fees and intake dates are set by London School of Planning and Management (LSPM), the approved centre.
Qualifi's Level 5 security diploma is compact: four units for 120 credits, which makes each unit substantial. Three are technical (Cryptography; Digital Investigations and Forensics; Communications and Incident Management) and the fourth, Strategic Leadership, is the reason the programme exists. It assumes the learner already holds Level 4 computing or security credits and wants to move from doing security to leading it. Ofqual regulates it under 603/4139/7.
As with Qualifi's other programmes, its website does not publish total qualification time, guided learning hours or unit credit values on its programme pages, so the table shows dashes for those columns. The specification states them. Four units for 120 credits implies larger units than OTHM's 20-credit standard, which matches what LSPM's tutors say of the assignments: fewer, longer, more demanding.
The programme sits between the general IT diploma and the OTHM Cyber Security Extended Diploma in this site's sector list. It is the right choice for someone with technical grounding who wants the incident-management and leadership dimension; it is the wrong one for someone who still needs the computer science.
Same awarding body, same sector, same Level 5 outcome. The Extended Diploma includes the Level 4 stage; the Diploma assumes you already hold it.
Choose this if you already hold a Level 4 qualification in a related subject and only need the Level 5 stage.
Choose this if your highest qualification is at Level 3 and you want one enrolment that ends at year-two equivalence.
4 of the Level 5 unit titles appear in both programmes. Whichever route you take, you finish in the same credit position: 240 credits across Levels 4 and 5. The Extended Diploma reaches it under one registration and one certificate; the Diploma assumes a separate Level 4 award came first.
4 mandatory.
| # | Unit title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| 01 | Cryptography | — |
| 02 | Digital Investigations and Forensics | — |
| 03 | Communications and Incident Management | — |
| 04 | Strategic Leadership | — |
| Total credits | See specification | |
Unit titles and credit values from the Qualifi specification. Individual unit credits are not on the awarding body's web listing; the specification lists them.
How LSPM sequences them. Cryptography opens, because both forensics and incident management depend on understanding what encrypted evidence and encrypted attacks mean. Digital Investigations and Forensics and Communications and Incident Management then run in parallel, using a single extended incident scenario that LSPM develops through the term. Strategic Leadership closes the programme and asks the learner to write the security strategy that the organisation in the scenario should have had.
Qualifi's published criteria, quoted as data. London School of Planning and Management (LSPM) checks each applicant against them before registration.
Source: Qualifi specification. Qualifi's routes are a Level 4 qualification, relevant technical or risk experience, or a Level 5 qualification in another discipline. For the experience route LSPM asks for a description of the systems and incidents the applicant has worked on; for the other-discipline route it wants to see technical aptitude, since cryptography in particular is unforgiving of a purely managerial background.
Four assignments. Cryptography combines a technical evaluation with a written report on the selection of algorithms for a scenario; forensics produces an examination report to an evidential standard from a supplied disk image; incident management produces a response plan and a communication plan for the scenario, including what is said to whom and when; and strategic leadership produces a board-level security strategy with a maturity assessment. See how LSPM teaches and assesses for the marking and verification process.
LSPM's tutors mark and give written feedback. Qualifi samples marked work before results are ratified. A referred submission can be reworked after feedback.
Qualifi Level 6 Diploma in Cyber Security or a Level 6 IT or security diploma from another awarding body.
Top-up to the final year of a BSc (Hons) in Cyber Security or Information Security Management where the university accepts a Qualifi Level 5.
Security team lead, incident manager or information security officer roles in small and medium-sized organisations.
Yes. Qualifi sizes its units larger than OTHM's standard 20 credits, and the specification gives the value of each. Fewer, larger units mean each assignment is a substantial piece of work rather than a series of short ones.
Because the people who run incident response and set security strategy need both. Strategic Leadership is what distinguishes this programme from a technical-only route, and it is the unit employers moving someone into a lead role most often ask about.
Enough to understand why algorithms work and where they fail: modular arithmetic, key lengths, hashing properties. It is not a proofs-based unit, but a learner who avoids all mathematics will find it hard.
The examination is of a disk image LSPM supplies, analysed in a virtual environment LSPM specifies. You need a computer capable of running it; LSPM provides the tools, which are open-source.
Tell us what you hold now and we will say whether you are likely to meet Qualifi's criteria; LSPM confirms eligibility and the next intake.