Hi everybody

Having read a lot of the discussions on this forum about how some people are struggling to get into the HR world and are self-funding their qualifications, I now feel that I am in quite an enviable position, but also that I'm extremely pleased to have joined this community.

A bit of background....I joined a start-up consulting company as the Office Manager about 2 years ago and was the 15th employee. The company has done extremely well and we are now about 40 strong, including a subsidiary German company in Berlin. Whilst my job title is Office Manager, as is always the way in companies of this kind, you end up just taking on whatever is needed with a focus on a specific area or something that you have an aptitude for. The Operations Team has now expanded from 2 of us to 6, and we each have the opportunity to specialise in the role we have taken on. Obviously, the reason I've joined this community is because my specialism has turned out to be HR.

Since joining, I have been solely responsible for all HR functions from recruiting, maintaining our sponsorship license and arranging Visas (a lot of our analysts have very specific skill sets so this has been quite a few over the years), on-boarding, payroll, pensions, performance reviews, employee well-being, processes etc etc and I have probably recruited and hired around 55 employees in the 2 years I have been here. That said, although I have 15 years experience in various administration roles and I have a BA in History..... I don't have any HR qualifications and everything to date has been self taught.

Clearly, with the company now being the size it is (and rapidly expanding all the time - hopefully we'll be 70 people by the end of the year!), we need to have a qualified HR professional doing the HR and fortunately for me, the company want that person to be me and are willing to pay for my training. I realise what an amazing opportunity this is and I am extremely grateful.

Which brings me to my actual question.... what level should I start at? and should I do a Certificate or Diploma?

Due to having a full time job, the training is likely to be online or perhaps a hybrid of occasional visits to a training centre. I have spoken to a CIPD training company who suggested I do the Foundation HR Certificate, but having done some reading myself, I'm not sure if I wouldn't be better off doing the diploma and, although starting with the basics would probably be useful, should i go straight into the Level 5?

My only concern is that, these courses aren't that cheap and I don't want to waste my company's money by starting at too low a level. However, as I said before, the only HR experience/education I have to date is all self-taught so the foundation might be exactly the right starting point.....

I'm currently putting a business case together for the training, so any advice at all would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks so much

Bec