I've been involved in the setting up of courses of all levels over the past 15 years, and just to say as a note,that any subject no matter what it is can get a accreditation, as long as it meets a set of basic assessment criteria, some of which really have nothing to do with the subject in hand, believe it or not, To be national recognised a subject qualification needs to be listed on the governments S96 or S97 list, otherwise it is a local agreed qualification with an exam board such as OCR or OCN (both of whom I've written courses for),and while it is recognised as a valid UK qualification (usually vocational ) it cannot be a national qualification in otherwords there is no National Diploma in Bushcraft, this however does not devalue the other type, which is valid across the UK, but means that any institution can offer the same qualification with widely differing formats, and as such gives no standardisation.
I looked into writing a Nationally acceptable framework for 'Bushcrafting' a number of years ago, and to give you an idea of the task
National Award (Lv2) 8 subject units, each unit must have a guided learning of 30 hours per length of unit
National Certificate (Lv2) 12 subject unit, again each of which must have 30GLH
National Diploma (Lv2) 18 subject units, again as above
Although the GLH (Guided learning Hours) do not strictly have to be contact taught, the student does have to produce evidence to support the minimum number of hours have been put into study.
In addition a set of learning benchmarks have to be assessed, these need to be given a three tire grading, these being PASS, MERIT, and DISTINCTION, each of which need to clearly set out what is required in order to meet the assessment. This is unlike Degree level qualifications which are more subjective in otherwords the student are give a basic requirement and them the level at which the student performs is awarded.
After all this the Qualification then requires a system of formal internal verification (IV)by someone other that the instructor.
After which it is subject to external Verification by a board nominated External Verifier (EV).
The above is a minimum requirement to get on the National Qualification Framework, and as you can imagine Levels 3 and above require their own structures.
Hope this helps to understand the requirement of any subject qualification to be universally recognised as a Industry Standard.
Just in case you need to know how I know all this:
I hold a Bachelor of Education from the University of Warwick
Spent 15 years as a Post 16 Teacher in FE Colleges and Universities with QTLS accreditation
Have been both a Internal and External Verifier for 3 Exam boards
Have written 7 courses including 3 National Diplomas at level 3 and Industry Standard Qualifications.
