Opinion: CIPD Qualification is in massive need of modernisation

Maybe....but as an alternate view as there haven't been many

It rather depends what you think professional qualifications are there for, in the same way it rather depends what you think degrees and the like are there for. My first degree is in Politics (and great fun it was ) a bit of philosophy, a bit of history, a bit of economics, some debating (well lots) etc etc. Not of course equipping me with the skills to become a Politician (heaven forbid) but giving me (I hope) research skills, a logical inquisitive mind, certain organisational abilities, reasoning, presentation skills etc etc. Some of which have been pretty useful I hope both to me and my many employers over the years.

Its similar (for me) with the CIPD framework. They are not designed (I believe) to give you the precise set of practical skills necessary to perform "X" role for "Y" organisation. Partly because that would be impossible to achieve in the time available and partly because different organisations and different roles need different X's. But what they are designed to do is introduce you to the broad concepts and issues that HR people should be thinking about and that we so rarely do. So for example motivation theory / engagement theory . Human psychology. etc etc. It should (and I do accept its a long time since I was there) give us the framework to construct a varied HR career rather than a predetermined set of skills. Giving people this foundation or framework is more important arguably in the long term than understanding what Clause 12 of the Equality Act says

Two other thoughts. One of course is that formal professional/academic qualifications are only one part of the triumvirate that we should be considering. The second part is the professional membership the person holds which isn't solely or entirely based on qualifications but on experience and demonstrating competence in increasingly senior HR roles (and I have seen far too many HR Bods equate an academic qualification with a professional membership level incorrectly) . The final part is experience and work placed knowledge, no academic or practical set of courses will ever replace that (and in an AI world actually this is probably more true than ever before).

The other and final thought is that we as HR bods are entirely (and uniquely) masters of our own destiny. CIPD Qualifications and indeed CIPD Professional Memberships levels are only important if we as HR Directors and Managers think they are. We are recruiting to our own teams and if we continue to put worth behind them they will continue to be important. As an unregulated profession (in the sense you don't have to be CIPD to become a HR bod) no one is forcing us to hire people with these qualifications but for some reason we do....

I agree with you in some aspects. When I did my level 3 back in 2017 it was at a college and it was great, a good blend of theory knowledge and we did practical bits such as doing a mock interview and also a short training session.

I started my level 5 in October and to much shame I'm still on my first assignment after 3 months. While I was looking forward to the course the first module is a chore, the assessment involves a bit of the CIPD profession map, 3 assessment criteria of ethics in the workplace, building inclusivity, and finally CPD (which I've always hated). It's far too heavily theory orientated and, as much as I'm disappointed to say, not an interesting topic.

As a side note, the learning modules I've had from my provider (DPG) haven't been sufficient to get me most of the way through the assignment.

Keith, you have put into words far more eloquently than I did! Thanks! As one who came from a first degree in History, the skills I learnt then on assessing evidence and opinions and reaching balanced conclusions about what is "reasonable" to accept, has stood me in good stead alongside what I learned on the IPM course. And I do strongly believe there is a place for theory, new ideas and academic research as part of our qualifications and CPD. But many of us also agree that the "practitising" - putting into practice/gaining workplae experience are important. We see so many students concerned that they have Level 7 or even PhDs in HR but can't get a position as a practitioner without actual experience, and many conversations about whether someone should go for a lower grade role or study even more that we are maybe in danger of giving mixed messages, to relate to your final point. I'm not sure what the answer is but we are part of the problem/solution as employers wanting to emply accredited professionals with practical competence, who, if all they have done so far is study, will not be able to demonstrate their competence in practice. But then even before relevant degrees and professional qualifications, everyone had to start somewhere without experience.....

OK, mulling a bit further on this - when I did my law qualification, it was the conversion route - so I spent 2 years, part time, learning the theory and knowledge that underpins most of our legal system, and wrote essays and exam answers to prove that I had memorised lots of legal cases (useful to precisely no lawyer ever I'm guessing, because: the internet). However to become a practising solicitor or barrister you had to do a further course that demonstrated you had the ability to turn that knowledge into practical work - to study for the bar, or to do the legal practice course.

I wonder whether it would be overcomplicating things to do a similar process in the HR field? To learn the theory and underpinning law/knowledge that informs everything that we do, and then to do a separate course in applying it in difficult or real world situations?

Just a thought.

When I did mine (2003 - 5) it was an optional unit for the PG Dip...

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.

Completely agree Charles !

Hi there, I'm enrolled in a level 7 CIPD qualification and so far have completed 3 modules. 2 of the 3 were brilliant - immediately useful in my day to day work in strategic HR and the assignments were transferable as reports I was required to do at work. Strong and repeated messaging about aligning HR strategy, policy and procedures to business needs, strategies and objectives considering external and internal drivers. I really like how the modules connect and paint a picture of how a host of factors should influence day to day HR from operations through to strategy - ideally creating a continuous and seamless flow from business strategy. The module that was not as useful was because of the quality of the lectures. The actual course design and module learning outcomes were really good - just let down by the lecturer. I found getting used to referencing tricky in the first assignment but that has actually been a very useful exercise too in terms of report writing at work and the standard of my work has improved because of this. I have done some day courses for more operational/informational content and attend networking groups too to get hands on feedback from other professionals as I wasn't expecting that sort of content in a post-grad qualification. A lot probably comes down to the institution and the lecturers. All the best

This is really useful to read, as it has just saved me several thousand pounds. As an Employment Law Paralegal it sounds like I probably know a lot more than anyone undertaking the CIPD L5 or above course, and makes any expenditure in obtaining qualification quite futile. It is sad to read this though, especially if the CIPD are really stuck in their ways.