There are many fake qualifications made available to students by various so called business schools sometimes using famous names of Universities in UK said Nimal Wirasekara Executive Director Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing. There are certain qualifications that also boast of providing the qualification without any examination. When enrolling for such a course, one should ask the question how recognized is this qualification? The recognition comes from the employer. One simple way of looking at the quality and the recognition is to go through the vacancy advertisements and see how many organizations request for these qualifications. If it is a short course providing only the basics, then the credibility of the organization offering this qualification should be looked at.

Other way these organizations make money is by selling a foreign name. Sri Lankans are easily duped by a UK, US, or an Australian qualification. The best way to find out the credibility of these organizations are by going to the British Council, or the relevant Embassy. Any person can create a website and the student should be very careful in accepting these dot com organizations prima facie because these could be virtual organizations which are not physically present said Wirasekara.

Sometimes even genuine people are attracted to these so called organizations as lecturers. These organizations will use the genuine qualifications of these resource personnel to market the bogus qualifications. Some day when these organizations are exposed the credibility of the resource personnel will also be at stake, like what happened with Sakwithi Ranasinghe.

The upper class usually does not get caught to these bogus educational organizations. Unfortunately it is the lower middle looking to enhance their standard of living who usually get caught to these fake qualifications. When the truth hits them, a sizable slice of their earnings would have been taken by these organizations which might suddenly wind up.

It is important that students should have a clear understanding of the qualification before they register for such courses.

However there are genuine organizations that would provide the student with acceptance details of the qualification and the organization too. These organizations such as SLIM, CIM, CIMA, ICASL, IBSL, SLIM, AAT, CMA, IPM, have a reputation at stake and have been in operation for some time now. There are others who try to copy the qualifications offered by these genuine organizations and sell inferior products which are not recognized anywhere in the world.

The Ministry of Tertiary Education is trying its best to regulate these qualification awarding bodies and this will soon protect the individuals and students who would have otherwise spent substantial sums of money on these qualifications.