is it fall yet
If you work in HR in the UK, there's this organisation called CIPD (Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development) that's THE THING. Even if you have a degree in HR, there comes a point in your career where it's practically impossible to progress unless you're CIPD certified.
My manager has been badgering for me to get certified for almost a year now, but I've been reluctant for a number of reasons, chief among them being that I greatly dislike studying. Learning new things is cool, but getting my degree burned all lingering enjoyment out of any formalised studying.
There's also the fact that I'm not that into HR and certainly have no desire to progress to a managerial level, not to mention the fact that getting certified is something you have to do in your own time.
All that said, I'm now enrolled on a course to become CIPD certified.
We don't know how long we're going to stay in the UK, so it might be useful in the long run, if I do decide to stick with HR. In the end I might as well, because there's nothing else I'm interested in doing anyway, and this might help with future job opportunities and salary. Plus the company is paying, and that might not be an opportunity that I'll get again.
There's three levels (foundation, intermediate and advanced), and I'm going for the intermediate one. The foundation level is really basic, meant for people at the start of their career, and the advanced level takes something like 2 years to complete. Intermediate is 9 months, and I figure I can put up with something for that long.
There are different ways to do the course. You can either go directly to CIPD, but that's insanely expensive (something like £4,000), or to a university that's been approved by CIPD. I picked the university option, since it's under £2,500 and had a much greater chance of being signed off by our CEO.
Most of the stuff is online learning and assignments that you have to do on your own time, but there is some classroom stuff with a tutor. Options were either once a week in the evening or once a month for the weekend, and as horrible as losing an entire weekend is, I'd just rather get it over and done with for the month all at once.
I enrolled online but had to visit the college in person to give them a letter from my employer confirming that they're paying. Oh boy, was that an eye-opening experience. I was expecting expecting the quiet and calm atmosphere that defines Finnish universities, and I couldn't have been further from the truth.
When I'd looked up the college online, I hadn't realised that the majority of the students there would be teenagers going for their A levels and the entire thing was like visiting some youth correctional facility. They had these security gates that you had to go though, sign with "no ID, no service" everywhere, students fighting with staff in the hallways about wearing their ID badges... I almost turned back then and there, but figured that all those people wouldn't come near an educational building over the weekend, so I'd most likely never see them after that day
Saturday was my first day on the course, and an auspicious start it was not. I'd received an email from the head lecturer saying that we'd be in room 204 starting at 9:00, a course schedule that said 9:30 and finally a print out from the cashier that said room 439 at 8:30.
Yeah.
I opted for 9:00 in room 204 because that came directly from the lecturer. I was the first one there, so immediate doubt followed, but a few others joined me soon enough and we figured we were in the right place. More people trickled in, finally followed by a member of staff. It was a woman, though, and our tutor's name is decidedly male, so we were all a bit confused, but she said she was there for the CIPD course.
It wasn't until roll call that we figured out she was there to teach a different CIPD course, and only about half the people in the room were hers. She'd just been told the same room as us. She eventually took her students to the next room and we were left sitting there wondering what the hell now.
Eventually our tutor turned up at 9:30, saying he'd been told a different room number and that he'd bee looking for us for the past half an hour. Give you great confidence in the college, doesn't it?
When we did finally get started, it was alright. There's nine of us, all female, from different backgrounds. A couple of mothers doing the certification to have an advantage when returning to work after a few years away, a few people wanting to get into HR, me and another lady sent there by our employers.
We had lots of group discussions, which I really enjoyed, because everyone had such a different background - trade union, NHS, detention centre, recruitment agency, etc. The tutor seems really nice, but very strict in his grading. We have to do a 3k assignment for each of the nine modules, and he's got a two-page list of all the things that have to included in the analysis. I haven't written a paper in seven years, and I'm kind of terrified.
The only grades are pass or a referral (meaning if you missed or misunderstood some point, you just have to redo that part) but if you don't get a pass on your second try, you'll technically have to sit that module again. I have nine chances to fail!
Originally posted at Dreamwidth. You can also comment there using OpenID.
My manager has been badgering for me to get certified for almost a year now, but I've been reluctant for a number of reasons, chief among them being that I greatly dislike studying. Learning new things is cool, but getting my degree burned all lingering enjoyment out of any formalised studying.
There's also the fact that I'm not that into HR and certainly have no desire to progress to a managerial level, not to mention the fact that getting certified is something you have to do in your own time.
All that said, I'm now enrolled on a course to become CIPD certified.
We don't know how long we're going to stay in the UK, so it might be useful in the long run, if I do decide to stick with HR. In the end I might as well, because there's nothing else I'm interested in doing anyway, and this might help with future job opportunities and salary. Plus the company is paying, and that might not be an opportunity that I'll get again.
There's three levels (foundation, intermediate and advanced), and I'm going for the intermediate one. The foundation level is really basic, meant for people at the start of their career, and the advanced level takes something like 2 years to complete. Intermediate is 9 months, and I figure I can put up with something for that long.
There are different ways to do the course. You can either go directly to CIPD, but that's insanely expensive (something like £4,000), or to a university that's been approved by CIPD. I picked the university option, since it's under £2,500 and had a much greater chance of being signed off by our CEO.
Most of the stuff is online learning and assignments that you have to do on your own time, but there is some classroom stuff with a tutor. Options were either once a week in the evening or once a month for the weekend, and as horrible as losing an entire weekend is, I'd just rather get it over and done with for the month all at once.
I enrolled online but had to visit the college in person to give them a letter from my employer confirming that they're paying. Oh boy, was that an eye-opening experience. I was expecting expecting the quiet and calm atmosphere that defines Finnish universities, and I couldn't have been further from the truth.
When I'd looked up the college online, I hadn't realised that the majority of the students there would be teenagers going for their A levels and the entire thing was like visiting some youth correctional facility. They had these security gates that you had to go though, sign with "no ID, no service" everywhere, students fighting with staff in the hallways about wearing their ID badges... I almost turned back then and there, but figured that all those people wouldn't come near an educational building over the weekend, so I'd most likely never see them after that day
Saturday was my first day on the course, and an auspicious start it was not. I'd received an email from the head lecturer saying that we'd be in room 204 starting at 9:00, a course schedule that said 9:30 and finally a print out from the cashier that said room 439 at 8:30.
Yeah.
I opted for 9:00 in room 204 because that came directly from the lecturer. I was the first one there, so immediate doubt followed, but a few others joined me soon enough and we figured we were in the right place. More people trickled in, finally followed by a member of staff. It was a woman, though, and our tutor's name is decidedly male, so we were all a bit confused, but she said she was there for the CIPD course.
It wasn't until roll call that we figured out she was there to teach a different CIPD course, and only about half the people in the room were hers. She'd just been told the same room as us. She eventually took her students to the next room and we were left sitting there wondering what the hell now.
Eventually our tutor turned up at 9:30, saying he'd been told a different room number and that he'd bee looking for us for the past half an hour. Give you great confidence in the college, doesn't it?
When we did finally get started, it was alright. There's nine of us, all female, from different backgrounds. A couple of mothers doing the certification to have an advantage when returning to work after a few years away, a few people wanting to get into HR, me and another lady sent there by our employers.
We had lots of group discussions, which I really enjoyed, because everyone had such a different background - trade union, NHS, detention centre, recruitment agency, etc. The tutor seems really nice, but very strict in his grading. We have to do a 3k assignment for each of the nine modules, and he's got a two-page list of all the things that have to included in the analysis. I haven't written a paper in seven years, and I'm kind of terrified.
The only grades are pass or a referral (meaning if you missed or misunderstood some point, you just have to redo that part) but if you don't get a pass on your second try, you'll technically have to sit that module again. I have nine chances to fail!
Originally posted at Dreamwidth. You can also comment there using OpenID.