Which one your field actually requires

Start from the job, not the brochure. Find five people doing the work you want, look at what they hold, and look at what employers ask for in current listings. In some fields a diploma is genuinely the industry-standard entry route and a degree adds little. In others the degree is a hard gate and no amount of diploma clears it.

Where a field is licensed, the professional body publishes exactly which credential it recognises. That published list beats anyone's opinion, including ours.