Distance learning is helping workers' careers – and their pockets, too

In the competitive workplace where the curriculum vitae is king, ambitious workers are falling back in love with the Masters degree. Graduates who turned their backs on further study after their first degrees are returning to pick up new qualifications that they hope will give them the edge for promotion or help them find new markets for their talents.

While the number of undergraduates has almost flatlined, postgraduate qualifications are booming. The successful completion of higher degrees was up by 2 percentage points in England last year and by 3 per cent in Scotland, while in Wales, where numbers are smaller, it reached 13 per cent. And with the explosion of online, distance-learning qualifications over the last few years postgraduate students don't even have to leave the workplace but can interact with tutors and other students via the internet.

The growth is not coming from undergraduates progressing straight to postgraduate study but mature students returning later in their careers, according to the Higher Education Policy Institute. For them it is continuing professional development with the bonus of new letters after their names and a piece of paper they can take with them up the career ladder.

Universities say the most popular courses for these students tend to be those linked to their careers, such as the advanced use of information and communications technology in the workplace, courses in property development at Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen, or an MA in information and communications technology in education, which is offered as a part-time and distance-learning course by the Institute of Education in London. Many of the courses don't require a first degree if the student has relevant work experience.

New courses are springing up each year as universities expand their distance-learning programmes. Though most of the work can be done at home in the evenings and weekends, students say it helps if their employers are supportive.

Andrea Birch, a graduate of the Masters in public policy and management at the University of York, says her then employers, a government department, were helpful and interested in her studies, but others had a different experience. "Some of the other students, particularly foreign students, had line managers without strong academic backgrounds who were downright hostile and made their studying lives difficult by such things as scheduling mandatory overtime during essay periods," she says,

Since enrolling on the course she has changed direction and now works in the aerospace industry. "What I learned has been instantly transportable and applicable to aerospace defence. I recall being asked what the course was all about at the interview. No use to us is it? I was asked. My diatribe in response was that if they didn't think understanding macro economics, global governance, informatics and public spending drivers were relevant then I'd better just leave. I got the job."

Jane Lund, the online teaching and learning manager at the University of York, says completion rates are good – between 80 and 85 per cent of those who get through the first year – and students from the UK and overseas include employees of national and local government, the police and prison service, education and charities such as Unicef and Action Aid.

Kat Norman, 24, a politics and history graduate, started the York MA while on a graduate training programme with a management consultancy firm. "I didn't want just a BA on my CV but didn't stay on after graduation for financial reasons. On the course, we engaged with new reading material each week and there were online seminars with tutors and other students from all over the world.

"It sounds a bit geeky but these online discussions were the best part of the MA because you aren't learning by yourself but helping each other with difficult concepts," says Norman, who completed the three-year course in half the time it usually takes and now has a job with Serco, the global service company.

Students should check that courses are valued by employers, according to Dr Richard Blanchard, the course co-ordinator for Loughborough University's distance-learning MSc in renewable energy systems technology. "Our students range from those who have just graduated to people in mid-career looking for a change and those working in the energy field who want to keep up with the growth in renewables," he says.

James Duncan, 24, has had two promotions since embarking on the three-year, distance-learning MSc in health informatics at the University of Sheffield and now heads the communications team of health-care consultancy The Improvement Foundation. Though he does not have an undergraduate degree his experience got him on to the postgraduate course.

"I was able to choose modules directly relevant to what I was doing at work and others that broadened my experience," he said. "The modules were provided by several different departments of the university which helped keep our interest."

Another first-timer is Kate Wilson, 28, who left college after A-levels. Her eight years of experience in public relations got her on to the MA in corporate communications at Sheffield Hallam. "I felt I had missed out on university and I feel more confident knowing the theory that underpins what I'm doing every day," she says. "It's a lot of work and you live in a parallel universe as a professional during the day writing things as concisely as possible and as a student at night working on 3,000-word essays but it's definitely been worth it."

The cost of Masters programmes varies with some priced at £2,500 and others up to £10,000. The three-year part-time Masters in renewable energy systems technology at Loughborough, for example, costs £4,500.

Some students get help with the fees from their employers but those who don't may still find it a sound investment. The Association of Graduate Recruiters says that 62.5 per cent of employers offer a salary premium to employees with Masters degrees. They give an average of £3,508 extra for an MSc or MA and £12,000 for an MBA.

Useful websites: www.direct.gov.uk, www.findamasters.com, www.prospects.ac.uk, www.hero.ac.uk

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