CIPD is it worth upgrading to intermediate?

FUNKYDADDIO

Hi guys, I've just started shared parental leave for a few months and I'm looking to find some time to study for a CIPD qualification. I've been working as a store personnel manager for nearly ten years for a large retailer. I want to study to hopefully find a new career in the next few years and need some accreditation for my skills. The cost difference between foundation and intermediate is about £750 and I'm just wondering will it add extra value or employability? Any advice greatly appreciated

KiKi

FUNKYDADDIO wrote: »

Hi guys, I've just started shared parental leave for a few months and I'm looking to find some time to study for a CIPD qualification. I've been working as a store personnel manager for nearly ten years for a large retailer. I want to study to hopefully find a new career in the next few years and need some accreditation for my skills. The cost difference between foundation and intermediate is about £750 and I'm just wondering will it add extra value or employability? Any advice greatly appreciated

Hi there - a few things to be aware of.

Both the Level 3 and Level 5 will give you the same outcome - Associate membership - so from that perspective there's no difference. On your CV, depending on your employer, they may have a preference for someone with a higher level qualification (some larger employers may take this view). However, in my long experience of HR and CIPD quals, what they're looking at is your level of membership alongside your experience, rather than which specific qualification you did.

If you want to learn, and want to do a qual to improve your knowledge, I would pick between them based on how much experience you already have. As a store personnel manager I think you'll probably find the Level 3 fairly basic. It's A-level standard, and covers the basics of employment law, recruitment, L&D and reward, alongside being a good HR practitioner in different organisations. If you've *never* done rect, L&D etc then the basics might be useful. These programmes tend to appeal to early career / HR admin / HR advisors.

If you already have quite a bit of knowledge behind you, the intermediate will be better. It's degree level, more challenging, and will offer more in-depth knowledge and skills building at supervisory / management level. These programmes tend to have more senior advisors / managers on them.

However: something else to be mindful of. If you have a number of years experience in HR and you're not necessarily looking to learn, per se, but get accreditation for your skills, have you considered the Experience Assessment route to membership? In my experience you'd probably come out at Associate level (store personnel managers tend to), but it's a shorter process (4 months in total) which accredits your current experience - rather than a learning route which requires you to build your knowledge and be tested on it. If you wanted to explore this, I suggest you call the customer services team at the CIPD and book a pre-assessment discussion. It's a free discussion, you speak with an assessor who'll establish if you've got enough experience for this route, and at which level of membership. If they don't think it's right for you, then they'll talk to you about the quals instead. They're not there to sell you anything, simply to give you advice. It's free, so it's probably worth having the discussion unless you already know you absolutely want to go down the route of learning and doing the qual.

Hope that's useful.
KiKi

KiKi

Sorry, I've just read that you've done ten years in that role! In that case, I'd *definitely* go the EA route unless you really want the qualification, in which case Intermediate. Foundation will be far too basic with that length of experience.

(Depending on who your large retailer is, you may find they already have an arrangement for EA with the CIPD in which case it's worth asking if they'll pay. It's probably worth asking anyway, as it doesn't require you to take time out to study, so they may be happy to sponsor you to do it.)

KiKi

FUNKYDADDIO

Wow Kiki, many many thanks, this looks a great route to take. Have booked a pre assessment, first available date though is mid April! Thanks

KiKi

FUNKYDADDIO wrote: »

Wow Kiki, many many thanks, this looks a great route to take. Have booked a pre assessment, first available date though is mid April! Thanks

They're super busy! They do get cancellations, though, so if you need to get a decision urgently, it may be worth calling up on a Tues / Weds and see if they have any cancellations that you can slot into. It would be unusual not to have a cancellation that week. If you do do that, though, make sure they already have your CV.

FUNKYDADDIO

Hi, can you advise what the pre assessment phone call looks like, I have mine tomorrow and am a bit nervous, any hints or tips? Thanks.