Interior Design

Do you appreciate good design and feel you have a creative streak? If you do, Interior Design is just right for you. This course will give you a clear understanding of the principles of Interior Design. In short, this course could set you along the road to becoming an in-demand professional Interior Designer - perfect if you are bored with your job or thinking about a change of career. Even if you simply want to improve your knowledge and skills in this area without any thought of making you money, this is the course for you.

Interior Design has probably never been so popular. It's everywhere you look – on television with programmes such as Grand Designs, in glossy magazines, and on the internet. By taking our distance learning Interior Design course, you will learn the basic skills of an Interior Designer. You will learn about the history of interior design and study classic design styles. The course also deals with the features which contribute to good design such as concept, colour, shape, texture and balance. It also explores the various 'elements' of a room which influence design. There are practical areas of the course too – you will undertake an interior design project and learn what equipment and other skills you will need to set up a small business as an Interior Designer.

At UK Open Learning we pride ourselves on our friendly and supportive tutors. Your tutor support will start as soon as you receive your course and will be valid for 12 months. All our tutors are highly qualified with extensive experience in supporting distance learning students. You contact your tutor via email and they are responsible for marking assignments answering your questions and guiding you through the course to ensure you are ready for your examinations.

No prior knowledge of Interior Design is necessary; the course is open to anyone but quite obviously a good background in, and enthusiasm for, design in general is an advantage as is a reasonable level of literacy.

We recommend you spend approximately 110 hours of your time studying for the NCFE Level 3 Award in Interior Design. The pace of study is completely up to you. To give an example, if you dedicate 2 hours a week to the course it would take you a year to complete but if you could spare 4 hours a week you could complete it in 6 months.

Unit 1 - The background. Unit 2 - Design Elements. Unit 3 - Room Elements. Unit 4 - The Project. Unit 5 - Making a living from Interior design.

This course is marked through a process of continuous assessment guided by your tutor. This means that your qualification will be awarded according to your performance on assessments rather than by taking an exam.

NCFE is recognised as an awarding body by the qualification regulators ('regulators') for England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The regulators are the Office of the Qualifications and Examinations Regulator (Ofqual) in England, the Department for Children, Education, Lifelong Learning and Skills (DCELLS) in Wales and the Council for Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment (CCEA) in Northern Ireland.

Each unit is followed by a written assignment, which is submitted to and marked by your tutor. You can send in your assignments and enquiries by e-mail and post.  There is no external examination required. With one exception, there is no word count for the assignments. However, you must prove to your tutor that you have fully understood the questions. This course is at Level Three so the assessment criteria will require you to work at a demanding but rewarding level.