"Is the online one just as good?" and the question underneath it

Say whether the certificate distinguishes them

This is the first thing the enquirer wants and almost the last thing providers mention. If the award is identical, say so in one sentence and the main worry disappears. If it is not identical, say that too, precisely, because the student will find out at the moment it matters most and the provider will own the surprise.

Completion rates differ, and pretending otherwise is a short game

People finish things they physically attend more often than things they intend to watch later, and most providers know their own numbers even if they have never published them. The useful version is not a statistic but a description of what makes the difference: fixed live sessions, a cohort that notices an absence, a tutor who contacts you in week three. That tells an enquirer which of the two they will actually complete.

Describe what is genuinely lost, and what is genuinely gained

Online loses the corridor conversation, the hands-on equipment and the accidental study group. It gains the parent who could not have attended at all, the person two hours away and the shift worker. An honest list of both is more persuasive than parity claims, because the enquirer already suspects there is a trade and distrusts anyone who says there is not.

Let people ask the embarrassing version of the question

The real question is often "will people think less of it", and nobody asks that of a human being. They will ask it of an assistant at eleven at night, which is one of the few things a chat window does better than a conversation. Write an answer for it, in plain terms, instead of leaving the enquirer to guess from a feature table.