They complete 64 hours of training over an eight-day course and have to pass a written and practical exam before receiving volunteer status.

BBC: NEWS | Health | Volunteers boost ambulance crews

A-levels, the academic diplomas are mostly marked by schools, they are unlikely to inherit their predecessors' status as hard exam currency.

ECONOMIST: Qualifications

He seems to assume that the status distinctions of the Indian Civil Service (an exam-based meritocracy) somehow sprang full-grown from the habit of rewarding Whig landowners with earldoms.

ECONOMIST: The British empire