CIPD Level 5Associate Diploma in People Management

Yes, you must be a CIPD member for the duration of your studies. We can’t submit your assignments for moderation, give you assessment grades, or award your qualification unless you’re an active CIPD member, so you must register before submitting your first assignment.

We’ll give you full details of how to join as a Student Member after you enrol. You’ll pay an annual Student Membership fee – our CIPD Advisors can give you the most up-to-date costs.

When you complete your course, you’ll become an Associate Member of the most prestigious HR and L&D organisation in the world, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD).

You’ll join a community of 160,000 ambitious, forward-thinking professionals across 120 countries, and have exclusive access to insights, advice and guidance from prominent HR and L&D experts.

On top of offering you the professional credibility you need, CIPD membership has the potential to increase your earning potential even further than your CIPD qualification alone; up to £4,400** as an Associate Member or up to a whopping £17,200** as a prestigious Chartered Member in mid to senior-level HR roles! 

If you’re interested in becoming a CIPD member, take a look at the new CIPD membership levels and how they’re aligned with CIPD’s Profession Map.

Get in touch with our CIPD Advisors on +44 141 404 6595.

They’ll talk through your experience and skills to make sure you’re choosing the right course, then get you enrolled with a flexible monthly payment plan.

If you have any disabilities which you think might affect your studies or assessments, please tell your Course Advisor before you enrol so we can advise you on whether reasonable adjustments can be made to accommodate your needs.

Yes, you can!

If you enrol on our CIPD fast-track programme, you'll cover the same content on an accelerated timeline of 10 months, and you'll be expected to study for 8 to 10 hours each week (this includes attending classes, reading, working through content and writing assessments). 

This type of accelerated study may be ideal for students who are balancing study with work or family commitments or may be tied to achieving a qualification for a performance review or appraisal. 

For more information on our CIPD fast-track programmes, get in touch with our course advisors by webchat, email or phone.

If you’re not ready to commit to the full qualification and would like to focus on only the essential modules of this course, you could study our CIPD Level 5 Core programme.

It covers 3 modules:

• Organisational Performance and Culture in Practice
• Evidence-Based Practice
• Professional Behaviours and Valuing People

The programme has an average completion time of 6 months and a support period of 9 months.

Bear in mind that the Core programme won’t give you a CIPD qualification, just the essential skills you need for mid-level HR roles.

If you complete the programme and then decide you’d like to move onto the full CIPD Level 5 Diploma, you won’t need to take the whole course again – you can simply complete the extra 4 modules and you’ll be CIPD qualified!

For more information on our CIPD Core programmes, get in touch with our course advisors by webchat, email or phone.

Your payments will be charged in GBP. The monthly payments listed in your local currency are an estimate based on the current exchange rate from xe.com.

This means that if you set up a monthly payment plan, the amount you’ll pay each month in your local currency may vary based on the current exchange rate.

Your bank may use a different exchange rate from the one listed here, or charge a fee for converting your payments into GBP; we’d advise that you speak to your bank directly for more details.

The CIPD Level 5 Associate Diploma in People Management is a mid-level qualification aimed at professionals who are looking to develop their current career in Human Resources and advance to more senior HR positions. It's at undergraduate level, in terms of difficulty. 

It's ideal for HR professionals who have existing experience in human resources and people management, or for those who have successfully completed the CIPD Level 3 Foundation Certificate in People Practice. You'll need some prior work experience in the field to be eligible to study this course. 

A Level 5 course, this qualification will hone your professional knowledge and take your skills to the next level. It's designed to challenge your expertise and equip you with the specialist, critical and strategic HR skills for you to be able to perform intermediate HR roles successfully. 

The course is split into seven modules, six of which are core modules and one elective module which you'll choose yourself, based on your own professional interests:

Core modules

• Talent Management and Workforce Planning
• Reward for Performance and Contribution
• Professional Behaviours and Valuing People
• Organisational Performance and Culture in Practice
• Evidence-Based Practice
• Employment Relationship Management

Elective modules (choose one) 

• Specialist Employment Law
• Diversity and Inclusion
• People Management in an International Context
• Leadership and Management Development
• Wellbeing at Work

In Talent Management and Workforce Planning, you'll explore how managing the workforce is vital to ensure long-term business success. In this module, you’ll look at contemporary labour market trends and understand their significance for workforce planning, including how organisations can position themselves in competitive labour markets.

You’ll also explore the techniques used to forecast supply and demand, study various approaches to succession and contingency planning and learn how to build diverse talent pools, manage contractual arrangements and onboarding, and develop and retain your organisation’s talent.

In Reward for Performance and Contribution, you’ll look at how to develop effective reward packages and how to gather and analyse data to support reward decisions. You’ll learn how internal and external business factors influence reward strategies and policies, the financial drivers of the organisation and the impact of reward costs.

In addition, you'll examine the principles of reward and its importance to workplace culture, performance management, and how policies and practices are implemented, and learn about the legislative requirements that impact reward, considering the role of HR in supporting managers to make fair, consistent and appropriate reward judgements.

Professional Behaviours and Valuing People will help you you evaluate what it means to be a people professional, how the role is evolving, and how you can apply personal and ethical values at work.

You’ll learn how to champion inclusive and collaborative strategies,  explore the human and business benefits of inclusive behaviours and the right to be fairly treated at work and evaluate solutions aimed at building positive working relationships.

Finally, you’ll assess your own strengths and weaknesses and formulate a Continuous Professional Development plan to guide your learning journey.

In Organisational Performance and Culture in Practice , you'll explore the connections between organisational structure and strategy and the wider world of work in a commercial context. Examining the factors and trends that impact business strategy and workforce planning, you'll look at the influence of culture as well as employee wellbeing and behaviour in delivering change and organisational performance and learn how to analyse and assess organisational priorities.

In Evidence-Based Practice , you'll develop an understanding of evidence-based practice and the tools and methods that you can use to diagnose workplace issues, challenges and opportunities.

You’ll also learn to evaluate the benefits, risks and financial implications of solutions aimed at improving people practice issues, as well as measure the impact and value people practice contributions make to organisations.

In Employment Relationship Management, you'll analyse the key approaches, practices and tools you can use to manage and enhance the employee relationship.

You’ll develop an understanding of practices aimed at supporting employees as well as review emerging trends and developments to inform approaches to employee engagement. You'll also examine collective employment law and employee representation, and gain practical skills in performance, disciplinary and grievance matters, acquiring the skills required for handling procedures effectively.

You can find out more about what you'll study on the CIPD Level 5 Foundation Certificate in People Practice in our blog, CIPD 101: A Complete Guide to CIPD HR

After you've successfully completed the CIPD Level 5 Associate Diploma in People Management, you'll be qualified to apply for a range of mid-level HR positions, including management positions.

After gaining your qualification, you'll be eligible to apply for more intermediate HR roles like:

• HR Advisor
• HR Analyst
• HR Officer
• Talent Advisor
• Recruitment Advisor
• Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Advisor 

You'll also find that you could potentially be qualified for entry-level management roles like:

• HR Manager
• HR Group Advisor

Yes, there are! When studying a CIPD Level 5 Associate Diploma in People Management, you'll be able to specialise in a particular subject area, by choosing your own elective module to study. This will allow you to enhance your understanding of an area of human resources that you have a professional interest in and help to develop your critical and analytical skills. 

In this qualification, you'll choose one elective module to study from this list:

• Specialist Employment Law
• Diversity and Inclusion
• People Management in an International Context
• Leadership and Management Development
• Wellbeing at Work
• Advances in Digital Learning and Development

Specialist Employment Law is perfect if you're interested in employment legislation, how it's enforced and how to manage issues relating to it. You’ll explore employment regulation and how it’s used in business practice in the UK. You’ll explore the aims and objectives of employment law, the role played by the tribunal and courts in enforcing employment law, and how cases are settled before and after legal procedures. You’ll also examine the various elements of UK discrimination and redundancy law, as well as how to lawfully manage issues relating to pay, working time, and employment rights for flexible working.

Diversity and Inclusion is ideal for professionals interested in exploring diversity, inclusion and equity in the modern workplace. Focusing on the value that diversity and inclusion has in the workplace and how a diversity and inclusion strategy can support your organisation, you’ll learn about organisational policies and practices in relation to diversity and inclusivity at work, and conduct an equality impact assessment on a people practice policy.

People Management in an International Context is well-suited to professionals who want to work in a global context, across many different countries. You’ll look at the context and complexities involved in international people management, assessing the drivers and benefits of employment in an international context.

You’ll also explore the varied approaches to policy and practice and learn the key factors affecting international recruitment, well as the challenges and cultural differences you’ll need to consider in your practice. 

Leadership and Management Development is a good choice for those who are fascinated with how management and leadership can influence workplace culture. You’ll explore the fundamental elements that drive the need for leadership and management within organisations.

You’ll examine the roles that leaders and managers perform in different contexts and assess the skills and competencies they require, learning how people professionals can support the development of leaders and managers.

Wellbeing at Work is suited to professionals are interested in the links between work, health and wellbeing. In this module, you'll explore how wellbeing connects with wider people management and organisational strategy, and understand how it can be managed to support business goals.

You’ll look at the main theories and issues surrounding wellbeing at work, and identify the stakeholders that are required to maintain wellbeing initiatives, developing a plan for your own workplace wellbeing programme.

Advances in Digital Learning and Development explores how technological development and  digital collaboration can impact the design and delivery of L&D over time, including the risks and challenges that technology-based learning and development poses for organisations.

You’ll explore the systems used for delivering online and in-person learning and discuss the implications of these methods, as well as create engaging digital learning content to meet specific purposes and learning needs.

Definitely! The CIPD Level 5 Associate Diploma in People Management is designed to follow on from the CIPD Level 3 Foundation Certificate in People Practice so it's the perfect qualification to study if you're looking to build your HR career in a dedicated, systematic way. If you've already successfully completed the CIPD Level 3 Foundation Certificate, you'll be eligible to study the Level 5 Associate Diploma. 

The Level 5 qualification builds on the foundation knowledge that you developed throughout the Level 3. Covering topics at a more advanced level than Level 3, the Level 5 will allow you to take your skills to the next level, enhance your existing skills and take the first steps towards specialising your HR practice based on your professional interests. 

Pursing the CIPD Level 5 qualification after gaining the CIPD Level 3 is recommended if you want to develop your career and achieve more senior roles. 

As the CIPD Level 5 Associate Diploma in People Management is an undergraduate-level course, you'll usually need one of the following to be eligible to study the qualification:

• Some previous professional experience working in HR
• Experience performing HR duties in a non-HR role (for example, as a manager)
• A degree (any subject) and a genuine interest in studying HR at a more advanced level than the CIPD Foundation Certificate

The key thing to remember in terms of eligibility for the CIPD Level 5 Associate Diploma is the fact that any experience of HR or carrying out HR duties in a role will help you a lot when it comes to qualifying for the qualification. 

As well as having one of the above to be able to study the Level 5, you'll need to be able to demonstrate that you can speak and write in English to a high level. 

If English is your second language, we recommend that you have an IELTS 6.0/TOEFL 79/Cambridge Grade C or equivalent. We're happy to review your case on an individual basis if you're unsure though. 

If you're unsure about whether or not you're eligible to study the course, just contact one of our friendly course advisors who will be able to talk through whether your skills, experience and qualifications meet those required for study on this course.