Taking dentistry to the next level

24 August 2017
Volume 31 · Issue 6

In its ambition to support the professional development of dentists, one of the UK’s leading private dental training centres has developed and launched new Level 7 postgraduate certificate and diploma courses.

After an exhaustive approval process, Tipton Training’s new course portfolio has been fully accredited by EduQual, a well-established UK awarding organisation offering a wide range of SQA credit rated qualifications. These postgraduate vocational qualifications are designed to give dentists an assurance of the quality of education and skills they receive by enrolling onto a course. In coming months, the courses will be credit rated and listed on recognised national educational frameworks.

As such, courses starting October 2017 will conclude with delegates receiving nationally recognised qualifications. The courses will focus on underpinning specialist knowledge through practical teaching.

What are the benefits in doing a Level 7 course?

It’s simple; a Level 7 course is a recognised and guaranteed level of quality. This status can only be awarded to institutions after their course curriculum, method of delivery and assessment is audited and verified by a body such as EduQual.

“Our externally verified Level 7 courses offer an assured level of quality. A useful comparison would be the inspection stamps we see on certain products. When we see a quality assured stamp we know we are guaranteed the best standard. The same principle applies to courses that are accredited with Level 7 status,” explains Vivek Gupta, CEO of Tipton Training.

“We have been working very hard to get our courses credit rated. We expect our courses to be on two national educational frameworks imminently. We expect our courses to be listed on the Scottish Credit & Qualification Framework (SCQF) by December 2017 and the Recognised Qualification Framework (RQF – recognised by OfQual) sometime in early 2018.

These qualifications will help dentists stay at the forefront of the industry – as they can showcase a first-class and quality assured education. Tipton Training’s inherent goal is that everything taught within a course can be put into practice the very next day. Dentists will deliver better treatment to their patients, giving them the potential to earn more income.

Level 7 postgraduate diplomas and certificates

Five postgraduate diplomas and five postgraduate certificates make up the new course portfolio.

“A lot of thought has gone in our PG diplomas and PG certificates and I thank our lecturers for their time and effort. The way units and learning outcomes are designed will add significant value to dentists on our courses,” explains Vivek Gupta.

“In reviewing our programmes we took care to ensure that the scope and depth of topics combined effectively with the highly valued flexibility of a traditional Tipton Training course. We also updated our existing assessments to guarantee credibility, qualification status and value for our delegates.

“PG diplomas are long established qualifications and even patients recognise them as a mark of further education. The rigour of education and consequently the benefits in terms of the ability to deliver a range of treatments to patients with greater confidence makes PG diplomas a valuable part of a dentists profile. However, we appreciate that some dentists might have time commitments or other pressures and therefore we developed our PG certificates which let dentists pursue their ambitions with less pressure.”

A postgraduate diploma course has between 10 and 14 units and can be completed in 12 to 18 months. If time away from practice is an issue, delegates have the option to complete the course in an extended format over approximately 24 to 36 months. By comparison, a postgraduate certificate course has approximately six units that will take one calendar year to complete. Units within both postgraduate diplomas and certificates have specific learning outcomes which are assessed regularly through multiple-choice questionnaires, reflective write-ups and structured feedback on practical sessions.

The following courses will launch from October 2017:

PG Certificate

  • Restorative Dentistry
  • Operative Dentistry
  • Dental Implantology
  • Aesthetic Dentistry

 

PG Diploma

  • Prosthodontics
  • Aesthetic Dentistry
  • Restorative Dentistry
  • Implant & Prosthodontics

 

Flexible financing

In addition to making the educational changes required to take our courses to the next level, Tipton Training has been working on addressing the issue of affordability.

The training centre is now authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to offer interest-free and low cost finance to dentists. This means that Tipton Training can now introduce finance options to delegates so that they can choose to spread the cost of a course for up to 60 months.

“Dentists no longer have to worry about paying large sums up front. With our flexible financing options, dentists can now stagger their payments over a more manageable length of time to suit their specific needs,” adds Vivek Gupta.

For more information about Tipton Training, please visit www.tiptontraining.co.uk or call 0161 348 7849.