CIPD Level 5 Intermediate Certificate in Human Resource Management - Fast Track

This qualification provides the perfect platform to further develop your HR career and the knowledge needed to work towards professional membership of the CIPD. The programme will help you develop your ability to evaluate the effectiveness of different HR models and practices, and increase your understanding of external factors that impact upon HR activities and organisrns. Whilst building expertise in your chosen HR specialialist subjects, you’ll also develop your planning, analytical and problem-solving skills.

Students must come into CIPD membership before starting their qualification, and must remain in CIPD membership for the duration of their studies.

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Please click 'enquire now' for more information and a list of the latest start dates for this qualification.

Introductory webinar

Block 1 (4 days):

•Developing Professional Practice 

This course module is designed to give you a full understanding of the CIPD Level 5 Intermediate Certificate in HR Management programme. It ensures that you are fully prepared for the certificate units and assessment, and are able to make the most of the resources and support available.

It also enables you to develop a sound understanding of the knowledge, skills and behaviours required by HR professionals, as described in the CIPD HR Profession Map. It embraces the ‘thinking performer’ perspective, and covers the competencies needed when collaborating and working with others, and when functioning efficiently and effectively in an organisational context. The course module enables you to assess your own strengths, and identify a continuous professional development (CPD) plan based on the capabilities required for ethical, business-focussed and interpersonal professional conduct.

•Business Issues and the Context of HR

Human resources (HR) professionals need to understand key developments in the business, and external contexts within which HR operates.  This course module enables you to identify and review the business and external contextual factors affecting organisations, and to assess the impacts of these factors on the HR function. It also examines HR’s role in strategy formulation and implementation. It is designed to encourage you to adopt a critical perspective of these contexts and to provide workable organisational and HR solutions to address them.

• Using Information in HR

As an HR professional, you need to be able to present a viable and realistic case for improvement based on sound work-based research and an understanding of what is considered good practice. This course module develops your skills of research and enquiry to enable you to identify appropriate data sources that support an investigation into an area of HR practice. You'll learn to apply this data to evaluate the role of HR in business and strategy formulation and implementation, and to prepare and present a business case for improvement.

Block 2 (3 days):

• Employment Law

This course module guides you through the entire employment journey: from recruitment, employment contracts and typical workplace issues that arise during employment, to terminating employment.

•Developing Professional Practice (1 hour webinar)

•Business Issues and the Context of HR (1 hour webinar) 

• Using HR Information (1-hour webinar) 

Block 3 (4 days): 

• Resourcing and Talent Planning

A fundamental part of the HR management role is concerned with the mobilisation of a workforce; taking responsibility for ensuring that the organisation is able to access the skills it needs at the time and in the places that that it needs them to drive sustained organisation performance. This involves attracting, retaining and managing the departure of staff from the organisation. Achieving this requires insight-driven strategic and operational activity.  The course course introduces you to the strategic approaches that organisations take to position themselves as employers and to plan effectively so they are able to meet their current and anticipated organisational skills needs.

You’ll be introduced to the key operational tools, techniques and practices that organisations use to resource effectively, including recruitment, selection, workforce planning, staff retention, succession planning, retirement and dismissal processes, with an overview of the way different organisations manage these activities and which are the most effective in the context of diverse and distributed locations.

• Reward Management

This course module provides an understanding of how the business context drives reward strategies and policies including labour market, industrial and sector trends, regional differences and trends in pay and international comparisons, the financial drivers of the organisation, the balance sheet and the impact of reward costs.  You’ll acquire knowledge of the perspectives, principles and policies of reward from a theoretical and strategic focus, and how to implement them in practice. You will also be able to assess the contribution of reward to business viability, and advise on the appropriateness of policies and practices to line manages to promote employee performance.

• Resourcing and Talent Planning (1 hour webinar)
• Reward Management (1 hour webinar)

In addition to the workshops and webinars, the programme includes:

• post-workshop activites

• six 3,000 word written assessments.

This qualification is suitable for you if you're currently working in the field of HR management and wish to extend your knowledge and skills in order to develop your career. You may be looking to work towards a professional level of membership to gain credibility and recognition. The ideal candidate will have responsibility for implementing HR policies and strategies and have a need to understand the role of HR in the wider organisational and environmental context.

There are two options for completing this qualification: modular and fast-track. The fast-track programme is more intense and for professionals who wish to gain the qualification in a shorter space of time.  The information on this page covers the fast-track option.

Subject to you having the appropriate level of experience, successful completion of the CIPD Level 5 Intermediate Certificate in HR Management means you can apply to become an Associate professional member of the CIPD.