Course is aimed at those wanting to pursue a management career

The foundation degree in "voluntary sector management" is being offered by the University of Derby at the behest of the charity.

Foundation degrees are new, two-year qualifications which the government sees as the main route for its planned expansion of higher education.

But its faith in them has been criticised by universities, independent research and the Commons education select committee.

Ken Cook, commander of Derbyshire St John Ambulance, said the course, starting in September, "provides the perfect opportunity for members to gain credit for their skills by transferring them into official higher education qualifications that have national recognition".

"It also provides a platform for members to gain extra skills such as leadership, management, health and safety, teamwork, recruitment and quality assurance, all of which would aid the work of St John."

Part-time or full-time study will be mainly work-based and include a research project on the organisation.

Skills needs

University officials anticipate this will centre on areas such as how to improve services like ambulance management and communications as well as managing fundraising and volunteers.

The programme leader at Derby, Elizabeth Usher, said: "Commander Cook outlined what the skills needs were and how they wished to develop the volunteers and staff.

"We then devised a foundation degree that was tailor made to their needs, but that would also meet the management needs of other voluntary sector organisations in the UK."

It is thought the course may be attractive to other voluntary organisations, health care providers or people wanting a career in the medical sector.

On Monday, the government said its planned expansion of higher education "will be based around economic trends and demands".

Expanding

The Education Secretary, Charles Clarke, said: "That is why we want to see most of future expansion for coming from work focused, intermediate level foundation degrees."

A taskforce with a mixture of public and private sector employers has been set up to advise on their future, and detailed plans for further development would be set out in a prospectus in the autumn.

He was responding to a critical report from the Commons education committee. It said foundation degrees were "vitally important" qualifications, but "not full degrees".

A report by the Higher Education Policy Institute, an independent think-tank, said that if foundation degrees were clearly defined in consultation with employers to meet regional skill needs, and promoted well, they could be "very successful".

But if the government did not increase the number of first degree places, it was possible many young people would come out of school wanting to do a degree and find there was no place available.