• Replies 26 replies
  • Subscribers 20 subscribers
  • Views 16464 views
  • Users 0 members are here
Options
Related

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.

Parents
  • So I'm relatively old school on here - I studied my CIPD PG Dip in 2003 - 5 alongside my first HR Administrator job. (I worked for the University where I studied so yes it was fairly jammy but also it didn't cost my employer much). In response to Nina's query - employment law was an option on mine (I didn't take it as it sounded boring and I did Equality and Diversity instead).

    I seem to recall most of the units being fairly theoretical but mine did have some practical elements:
    *as part of Recruitment and Selection we devised interview questions, practised interviewing and scoring candidates on each other;
    *as part of Learning and Development we devised a training session, practised it live on each other and evaluated it (mine was napkin folding!);
    *We had a couple of residentials each year which had other practical elements (lost in the mists of time!)
    *we did an extended management project each year (my second year I focused on induction and re-designed my organisation's induction programme as a result);

    So although the majority of our marks were coursework based, there were definitely some practical pieces to embed some skills. For me, being a newbie in HR I was learning about some processes (such as appraisal) which I hadn't actually experienced in the workplace. I also learnt some vaguely related stuff such as basic accounting which I didn't apply until much later on in my career...

    I went onto do a top-up MSc in HRM later at a different Uni (more prestigious) and for that I did an extended research project on trust and change (I got a CIPD prize for that!). That course had more business strategy units and less practical elements.

    It's an interesting topic and I think there is a disconnect, like many qualifications, between this one and what jobs/professions need.
Reply
  • So I'm relatively old school on here - I studied my CIPD PG Dip in 2003 - 5 alongside my first HR Administrator job. (I worked for the University where I studied so yes it was fairly jammy but also it didn't cost my employer much). In response to Nina's query - employment law was an option on mine (I didn't take it as it sounded boring and I did Equality and Diversity instead).

    I seem to recall most of the units being fairly theoretical but mine did have some practical elements:
    *as part of Recruitment and Selection we devised interview questions, practised interviewing and scoring candidates on each other;
    *as part of Learning and Development we devised a training session, practised it live on each other and evaluated it (mine was napkin folding!);
    *We had a couple of residentials each year which had other practical elements (lost in the mists of time!)
    *we did an extended management project each year (my second year I focused on induction and re-designed my organisation's induction programme as a result);

    So although the majority of our marks were coursework based, there were definitely some practical pieces to embed some skills. For me, being a newbie in HR I was learning about some processes (such as appraisal) which I hadn't actually experienced in the workplace. I also learnt some vaguely related stuff such as basic accounting which I didn't apply until much later on in my career...

    I went onto do a top-up MSc in HRM later at a different Uni (more prestigious) and for that I did an extended research project on trust and change (I got a CIPD prize for that!). That course had more business strategy units and less practical elements.

    It's an interesting topic and I think there is a disconnect, like many qualifications, between this one and what jobs/professions need.
Children
No Data