In brief

What you are signing up for

Take the four units that every Qualifi Level 4 IT diploma shares (the ethics, maths, PC maintenance and graphics-and-database units listed below) and add Graphical User Interface (GUI) and Programming Concepts and Java for Android Programming, and you have the e-commerce pathway. The reasoning is that a trading website or app is a database with a face, so the specialist units are about the face.

Two kinds of learner choose this: people who run or work in small online retailers and want to understand and build their own tools, and IT starters who like the visible, customer-facing end of the field. Assignments include a product database, a designed and evaluated interface, and a simple Android application; you leave with a portfolio you can demonstrate. Be clear that the marketing, logistics and payments side of e-commerce is touched on in the ethics and database units but is not the focus; this is an IT diploma, 120 credits at Level 4, with an e-commerce lens.

Intended photograph: Intended photograph: a learner's desk with a phone running a prototype shopping app next to a laptop showing the product database it reads from. Any teaching setting shown would be LSPM's; this site has no premises of its own.
Contents

The six units

  1. Information Technology and IT Ethics
  2. Mathematics and Statistics for IT
  3. PC Maintenance and Operating Systems
  4. Computer Graphics Editing and Database Concepts
  5. Graphical User Interface (GUI)
  6. Programming Concepts and Java for Android Programming
six mandatory units, no optional units 120 credits

Unit titles and credit values are taken from the Qualifi qualification specification. The order in which LSPM teaches them is set by LSPM and confirmed at enrolment.

Common core first, with the database concepts unit taught with an online-retail dataset. Graphical User Interface (GUI) follows, and the Android programming unit is last so that the app you build uses the database and the interface designed earlier.

Entry

Entry requirements

Qualifi sets the entry requirements for this qualification and LSPM, as the approved centre, applies them when it assesses your application. As published by the awarding body:

  • demonstrated some ability and possess qualifications at Level 3, for example ‘A’ Levels or vocational awards;
  • spent some time in an organisational role and shown they have capability and drive to develop;
  • seeking further professional development and to gain work related skills and know-how.

Source: the Qualifi specification. If you are not sure whether your qualification counts as equivalent, send us the details and we will put the question to LSPM's admissions team, who make the decision.

Level 3 qualifications, organisational experience or a professional development motive are Qualifi's stated routes. You should have used a computer beyond office software; no programming experience is assumed.

Assessment

How you are assessed

Practical artefacts with written justification: a database, an interface prototype with usability notes, and a small app. There are no exams. Ask LSPM whether drafts and demos receive feedback before submission.

Assignments are set and marked by LSPM's tutors, moderated within LSPM and sampled by Qualifi before LSPM claims certificates. Draft feedback and resubmission arrangements are LSPM's own practice; confirm them at enrolment. How assessment works in full.

Progression

Where it leads, stated carefully

Level 5 Diploma in Information Technology from Qualifi, or a Level 5 e-commerce or web pathway where offered.

Year-two entry to a computing, digital business or web development degree, at the university's discretion.

Junior web or app developer roles, or running the technical side of a small online business.

We do not name partner universities on this page. If and when LSPM shows us a written progression agreement for this diploma, it will be listed here with the date it was signed.

Readership

Who it suits

Likely to get a lot from it

  • Small online retailers who want to stop paying for things they could build.
  • IT starters who prefer front-end and mobile work to servers and cabling.
  • Marketing staff in e-commerce firms who want the technical vocabulary.

Better served by something else

  • Anyone wanting a digital marketing or business e-commerce course; this is technical.
  • People who want networking or infrastructure; the IT Networking diploma covers that.
  • Learners who want to skip the maths and statistics unit; it is compulsory across the Qualifi IT family.
Questions

Asked about this programme

Will I build a working online shop?

You will build the parts: a product database, an interface and a mobile app. Assembling a fully live, payment-processing store is beyond the Level 4 scope, though several learners have gone on to do it.

Why Java for Android rather than web frameworks?

That is the unit Qualifi specifies for this pathway. Java teaches solid programming concepts that transfer, and Android gives a tangible product to test.

How does this differ from the Web Design pathway?

Web Design takes Web Design and Web Programming as its two specialist units. E-commerce takes GUI and Android programming instead. If you want websites, pick Web Design; if you want apps and interfaces, pick this.

Documents

Read before you decide

Programme brochure

Brochure slot: PDF to be supplied by LSPM, with its fees, dates and tutor profiles for this programme. Ask us for it by email in the meantime and we will obtain the current version from LSPM.

Official specification

Qualifi Level 4 Diploma in IT – E-commerce specification, published by the awarding body. The authoritative source for units, learning outcomes and assessment criteria. Also listed on the Ofqual register under 603/4786/7.

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