Hi everyone, 

I moved over to the U.K from the U.S just over a year ago. I got my visa/permission to work around February and was getting a fairly decent response from employees (I had quite a few interviews lined up), but then everything got shut down with COVID. I've been applying to more jobs recently and finding I'm getting a much worse response than before. 

I was originally going to pursue a CIPD qualification after I had a job/income coming in, but now I'm wondering if should get started on one of the qualifications to help boost my chances of landing a job. I have also been out of work for nearly 2 years (due to the length of the visa process and more recently due to COVID) and I'm concerned that the longer I'm out of work the less appealing I'll become to hiring managers, so I want to take steps to try to find a new role as soon as possible. 

I was looking at possibly doing a Level 7 diploma, since I do have a Master's in Organisational Psychology, with an advanced certificate in HR Management from a U.S university. However, at a price of around £6k, the level 7 is a lot more expensive than I'm really able to afford at the moment. I'm also looking at the Level 5 or even one of the certificates instead of the diploma. I'm wondering what people think of the different options, in terms of value? The Level 5 may also be more appropriate for me - Although I have a master's degree, I only have about 5 years of HR experience, with 2 of those being at an HR manager level. Would love to know what people think. 

I've also seen some advice on this forum suggesting going for a level 5 and then to go for the level 7 later on, but truthfully, I'm not sure I would want to pay for the level 5 only to pay for the level 7 later on. Or have people who have done this found it all to be worth it? 

Thanks in advance for any advice you can provide!