Although college diploma courses typically provide a greater depth of knowledge, some individuals opt for certificates, which take less time to earn.

And while less in value than a degree, certificate programs — or residency license programs — do provide additional and supplemental knowledge for those looking to enhance their education.

Fayetteville Technical Community College and Methodist University offer numerous certificates, and perhaps nowhere more than in the area of education.

Fayetteville State University did not immediately respond to a media request for an interview.

Like an online degree program, residency license programs are designed for students who want to further their education but need flexibility due to work commitments and daily life schedules.

In North Carolina, residency licensure is issued on a provisionary basis in the teaching area that corresponds to the individual’s qualifications.

So, certificate vs. degree?

What is the best route for the individual?

“You can get a certificate. But it’s not going to influence very much in your pay or job position,”  according to Rondell Bennett, who is the Education department chair and an Early Childhood instructor at Fayetteville Tech. “As an educator, you need a license to teach. Not a certificate. A certificate would come with no license, which means no increase of income. But we do encourage people to participate in the license programs. Our license programs are connected with our degrees.”

Diplomas and certificates are awarded by educational institutions to students who complete a course of study. These documents certify that the candidate has successfully completed the course.

Patricia Fecher is, among other titles, the director of the Teaching and Learning Center and an assistant director of Education at Methodist University.

“A high school counselor, if you want to go into education, they’re going to encourage you to go to — you may start in a two-year community college program but you are going to transfer to a four-year program,” Fecher said.

A certificate indicates that an individual has some knowledge about a particular field, but a diploma says he has an extensive knowledge about a field. In that regard, employers are more likely to prefer diplomas to certificates — there’s a greater depth of acquired knowledge.

“The certificate is only a hodgepodge of courses, where the degree you have your ‘gen-ed' (general education) and subject area,” Bennett said.

“So you could come in and do five courses for a certificate and then, when you’re ready, after you feel like I can do this — ‘I’m successful in these classes’ — those courses would matriculate into a degree because they are part of a degree, whatever degree it is they’re choosing, and finish the rest of the degree.”

FTCC, she said, offers hundreds of certificates. “And they’re always coming up with new things,” she added, “especially in the computer science technologies and those skills in the STEM. They’re always coming up with something different.”

STEM is an education curriculum that focuses heavily on the subjects of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Depending on what field one is in, a certificate can still have clout with an employer, Bennett said. It indicates that you already have started some courses, so you can now go back and work on a degree.

“If you’re in computers or technology,” she said, “then, yes, those certificates weigh heavily. You’ve been trained as a technician in X, Y, Z. You have those skills. I think that’s the big draw for Fayetteville Tech — we have such a huge technology area and people are able to come and get their certificate in whatever STEM area it is and be able to be highly marketable and competitive.”

Fecher said Methodist does not offer certificates in Early Childhood education and that the college’s residency license program really doesn’t cover business and such professional areas as technology.

“There is a whole group of people who have degrees in other areas, had careers in other fields, and now decided that they would like to be educators and go into teaching,” she said. “Instead of having to go back for a full master’s degree or having to go back for a second bachelor’s, they can choose this route through the 18-hour program that will lead to a license.”

The residency license program, which switched over from the lateral entry license program at Methodist, initially was designed so that at the high school level people in business who had expertise in areas like physics and math could come into schools and teach.

“The trend over time has been more and more folks are shifting careers -- mid-career -- and coming into education,” she said, “and they are filling the positions when there’s a gap or a need.”

Though FTCC has what Bennett called “numerous amounts of certificates for our program,” she added that the school’s biggest draw remain the degree programs. She noted the Early Childhood degree, and such subsections of the Early Childhood degree as birth through kindergarten licensure, are able to be transferred to Fayetteville State or the University of North Carolina at Pembroke, which is close.

“We have maticulations across the state for the licensure and BK (birth through kindergarten) licensure transfer administrative associate degree,” Bennett said. “So they’ll take the first two years here and they transfer their credits over to one of the UNC network schools or (the University of) Mount Olive, Pembroke, ECU (East Carolina University). So a couple of the private schools also take it. And then they finish their last two years at those schools and get their licensure or their degree from those schools.”

The teacher prep programs for elementary, middle and high schools are new programs at the institution. In this case, an individual takes the first couple of years at FTCC — which includes the four education courses mandated by the state to offer — before taking the majority of the general education courses at what school they are going to transfer.”

“There may be one or two lacking, depending on what school they are transferring to,” she said. “They are always encouraged to come here to take those one or two. It’s less expensive. And then transfer them into whatever four-year college they’re going to.”