Hi
I have recently completed my Level 3 Diploma and soon stating a new job as HR advisor. Am I right in thinking that I need a level 5 to progress to HR manager in the future? Is it a legal requirement?
Also I have seen that the CIPD do an experience assessment. As I have years of experience in managing teams and looking after the financials of organisations (setting strategies and company objectives) I’d be interested in that but would that give me the same qualification?
Thanks in advance
Elena
There is no legal requirement to have any qualifications to be called a HRBP, HRM or even HRDirector. HR in the UK is largely an unregulated profession.
The L5 and L7 will give you more knowledge and tools to use in your roles. And additionally may make it easier to get interviews.
Some of your previous experience will help in the professional assessment process if you go down that route but you will need to demonstrate knowledge and experience in the HR field as well. There is lots more info on this website if you search.
To expand slightly on Keith's answer, what many jobs look for is less a particular level of qualification than a level of CIPD membership. HR BP and HRM roles will very often require Chartered MCIPD status or evidence of eligibility for that status.
As you can't be Chartered MCIPD without either an L7 qualification or an experience assessment, that's why L7 becomes an important professional step.
The experience assessment is a pretty grueling affair in terms of the kinds of experience it looks for. General management and strategy simply isn't enough. You'll be expected to have been developing specific HR strategies, implementing them, measuring the outcomes and refining the action in response to the results. You will generally be expected to have been involved in developing and delivering HR policy and putting policy into action. This will be expected to cover the management of change, OD, recruitment, employee relations and similar, and to pass an experience assessment your role in this work will need to have been in formative or leadership capacity, not merely as a functional enabler.
To qualify at Chartered MCIPD level *with* an L7 qualification is no mere formality (I failed on my first attempt), so to qualify at that level without one is commensurately a rather more challenging prospect.
