Hello I am thinking of offering a product in the form of an e-course. However I'd like to offer individuals who finish it a "Certificate" of sorts. The question I have is can I do this without obtaining a special Government approval for the e-course? E.g. if I wanted to offer Certificate Stage 1 in HTML for instance ... How about if I called it a Diploma? Do restrictions exist on what I can and cannot call the course in terms of presentation? Thanks for help in advance.
No you cannot coz if you plan to give out cert then you must be register with your country education ministry. Its illegal to offer cert without their approval.
Contact your local council to get some more information on this, as it will vary depending on how serious the course is. For instance, if you want the qualification to be recognised by places of work and education, you'll need government approval, but if you're just giving out certficates that is more like a record of achievement, you probably won't need to get any professional approval. Either way, contact your council just to be sure
This will probably vary a bit on country, but what you can offer will also vary on your qualifications -- eg if you have a certificate IV as train the trainer or similar which is a good thing for marketing as well as it shows you have credible teaching abilities.