Hi Emma

Your reflective approach to better understanding of your HR role in a wider business context is IMHO both essential and commendable on your part.

Definitely, I’d say too take the plunge: ‘who dares, wins’ and all that!

The present Level 7 etc route to full CIPD membership seems to be designed to do this, although I have no direct experience of how it works these days, or how well or badly it might meet your contextual aims.

I’m sure CIPD Head Office will have membership development advisers who can advise you far better than I can about current routes to membership. Although have to say that long ago when I did mine I didn’t find anything very useful to me from that particular source but maybe I was just unlucky.

It may be that you’d be well advised or even need to study at Level 5 of CIPD’s specialist qualifications before embarking on the more advanced Level 7 etc stuff, but the for the exact route to follow you’ll need to get expert advice from such as above.

Jumping back to the wider context, and going wider still and wider, there is such as

www.open.ac.uk/.../dd102

It may be heresy to say it here, but you might like to think about this far, far, broader / wider educational route as a possible foundation / context for more advanced and specific HR /CIPD studies

In reply to David:

I did an MBA before the CIPD. Having the general business qualification gave me exemption from the management module of the CIPD. I really enjoyed the MBA course and it definitely gave my HR career a boost. If you have the chance to do a Business Management degree, I would seriously consider it. Experience outside the HR silo and broad business knowledge can become very important if your ambition is to reach a senior level in HR but your professional skills will be enhanced at any level by getting a good grounding in general management theory. As David suggests, the CIPD will advise you on the route to follow, including whether this course would give you credits towards a CIPD qualification.

In reply to David:

Thank you for your response. A degree is a huge financial investment so I wanted to make sure it's worth it. Sometimes it feels everyone has a degree. It's gaining a degree and standing out from the crowd

In reply to David:

Thanks. My local college is offering career degrees tailored towards people with industry experience but no educational background. I have worked for my company for nearly 10 years. I have reached a stalemate as far as I can go with

In reply to Emma:

Hi again Emma

Degree components (aka course units) from the Open University are second to none whereas I'd tend to be very wary of such material emanating from a local FE College......not being snobbish, I hope, just speaking from (quite a lot of) close encounters with both.