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Opinion: CIPD Qualification is in massive need of modernisation

Charles

Hey all,

I am a level 7 CIPD student, with two units left before I complete my course in July. I am currently employed as a HR Director in a small business (65~ employees), prior to this I worked at very large companies as a "People Professional" in some form, albeit more of an Operations position than an HR position.

Throughout the past 2-3 years of part-time studying, I have had this growing stance on the entire qualification:

The CIPD qualification produces great HR essay writers, not great HR professionals.

Why is there absolutely zero practical work for any of the qualification? It would be so much more enriching and effective it included:

  • Roleplays for very challenging disciplinaries
  • Mini assignment to plan, manage and roleplay redundancies within an organistion end-to-end
  • Tests to create a new organisational chart for a mock company
  • Having to write mock letters responding to a tribunal claim process, to develop technical writing.
  • Create a new reward structure for a mock company
  • Develop and present a company first People Strategy/Plan

There's so much opportunity to real and practical development. Instead every unit feels the same:

  1. Be assigned unit
  2. Buy prescribed book(s)
  3. Read prescried book(s)
  4. Write a 4000 word essay

I met someone on my course who has received a merit for an essay on the topic of redundancy, but has never actual conducted a redundancy meeting of any kind in their career. This is a bit like me saying I can drive because I passed the theory test but failed the practical.

Does anyone else feel this way? Considering how much stuff I see from the CIPD promoting the use of new technology, staying modern and ahead of the curve etc. the actual qualification seems remarkably old school.

  • The CIPD are obsessed with strategy not practical stuff like applying employment law. They are not going to change.

  • Hi  

    Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I'll see if I can get a reply for you in the New Year.

  • in reply to Steve Bridger
    These are the latest version of UK requirements for registration as a Chartered Engineer. Recall in the past asking how CIPD could justify their own peculiar ways of assessing professional competence in comparison with such as these, but as Peter observes, it’s a lost cause

    www.engc.org.uk/.../uk-spec-v14-updated-hierarchy-and-rfr-june-2023.pdf

  • Charles

    I couldn't agree more with you. As you say, academic study and academic writing shows only your ability to express your self in an academic way. You can say one thing but in practice you may do something totally different.

    When I did my CIPD diploma at (**&(^^%$%$ college (a long time ago), I handed in one of my 1st essays on 'effective induction', The tutor tossed my essay back to me and said it was unsuitable, and it,  "looked like a consultant trainer's handout". Well it was almost, as I'd been running courses for people who wanted to improve their own inductions and I'd previously designed inductions for an organisation and the induction I planned prepared and carried out was  highly praised by the then, Man Power training Commission and published by them as an example of a highly effective induction. (No lectures, no trainer stood next  a white board, lots of discussions, quizzes, games/exericises and so on).

    The college lecturers were for the large part crap. They were though very good at lecturing and had lots of theoretical knowledge on the various subjects.  Mostly they were capable at lecturing, although one or two obviously didn't care a toss and would have been a cure for any insomniac . They mostly had no idea how to teach. One of them even gave us a 40' lecture on why lectures are largely ineffective. I complained about one of the lectures so much  they removed the lecturer from out course............. Right I've got that off my chest.

    Its a self fulfilling system. Academic teaching, academic assessments. Academic graduates, who then turn into academic teachers who then produce aca..................and so on. Why would they want to change??  Its much the same reason our education system is based on much the same curriculum since the middle ages times.  How many of you have ever had to use classical Greek?  Or work out the area of a circle?  Why do we spend ages learning about Egyptian history, Ancient Greek history and nothing about the history of  the Aztec or Inca empires both of which had much bigger and longer lasting empires ???

    Good luck and keep smiling.

  • in reply to Steve Bridger
    Thanks Steve, not necessarily expecting a response from the CIPD or anything but it would be welcome
  • in reply to Charles
    I have asked so will post here when I get it.
  • Oh wow I agree so much and I wish I could do the course you describe! I completed my L5 in February, I'm in quite a strategic senior position and hoped the course would equip me with both strategic AND practical skills in the areas I've not dealt with yet - no such luck! I've written a series of academic sounding essays and learned about proper referencing. My next career move feels like it needs to be a step down now, so that I can learn from a mentor, someone actually doing those bits of the role. Not what I was expecting.
  • in reply to Rosie
    A number of years ago now to be fair but I found my course (L7) was very concentrated on what "high performing organisations" may be doing. The fact that few of us worked in such an environment seemed irrelevant. I too had little teaching around redundancy, and zero on TUPE, with a result that I was scared of TUPE for quite a while until I got involved in one and realised that a, it wasn't scary, and b, some of it could have been covered in the course.

    In fairness the course was mixed and I found some of it engaging and interesting but any development and learning I've had have been on the job. This is why I strongly advocate on here against the collection of qualifications in place of practical experience.
  • A (very) long time since I did my IPD qualifications (the C came later), What baffled me at the time (and hopefully has been addressed since) was the complete lack of employment law studied. While legislation was referenced I'm sure in each section, the proper framework of legal rights for employees was never covered. I know that it was when I did my law qualifications, many years after I started working in HR, that I properly understood contract law. I dread to think how many contracts I dealt with before then ...
  • in reply to Nina Waters
    I also did my IPM (!) post-grad diploma well over 30 years ago, though I did do a module on employment law; having said that, we were in the throes of the Thatcher union reform legislation, and SSP and SMP had only been introduced a few years before...... it does feel as if the qualifications have become much more academic. Indeed, when I started working in "personnel", there were no HR first or post-grad degrees, only part-time PG diplomas. However, there is nothing that can prepare you for actually undertaking a disciplinary investigation (my first was a night shift on a chemical plant investigating gross misconduct); speaking with very distressed staff who are at risk of redundancy, etc. even if we are armed with the best research about team working, leadership, behavioural tendencies etc. That's not to say there isn't a place for academic study, undertanding unerlying themes and principles, and undertaking research toenhance our knowledge; but there is a whole lot of difference between an excellent understanding of the academic principles and the practical application to stressed, emotional individuals. Not sure I've cracked that yet.....