I'm not familiar with the UK higher education system (I'm from a EU country) and this is confusing me a lot.
A friend of mine holds a master's degree in a completely unrelated field. He is now studying in UK, doing a so-called "conversion program" in computer science. It's a 1-year program which results in a MSc degree.
This is where I'm really confused. As the program is meant for people not having any knowledge of computer science, the subjects he's getting starts from the real basics (programming: if/else, loops,... databases, SQL: SELECT, WHERE, JOIN,...). Where I'm from, we would call this a "postgraduate" program which results in some kind of postgraduate degree. The concept of what is considered a master's degree here is that it follows up on a bachelors degree (a 3-year study), which is situated on level 7 of the European Qualifications Framework.
Currently, I'm taking a 1.5 years course on a bachelor's level in computer science as well (situated level 6), which is way more advanced than the basics he's getting and I will only receive an addendum on the bachelor's degree I currently hold already if I graduate. From what it looks like he's getting the subjects of a first year's bachelor (or undergraduate for the Americans reading this) program, still he'll be receiving an MSc degree at the end of the year.
I wonder how this is possible or how the UK education system works in this regard. This is not out of jealousy for my friend (I just hope he will be able to find a job he likes afterwards), however, he did get a little pissed off when I didn't understand how this can result in a MSc degree. I guess the UK education system is more different from ours than I thought.
Could someone shine some light on this matter? When I look around online, it seems many of these conversion programs are actually MSc programs. What are the different options for master's programmes in the UK (especially the "conversion" master's), how are they scructured and what value do they have for potential employers?