Level 5

Are you looking to develop your skills in Human Resources and People Management?  The CIPD Level 5 Associate Diploma in People Management is the perfect qualification for existing HR professionals keen to develop their skills and drive change within their organsations, helping you focus on what matters most to you.

West Suffolk College is offering this qualification via means of bi-monthly online taught lessons covering the Units within the qualification and tutor support.

The qualification is made up of three core units, 3 specialist units and the choice of one optional units and they are as follows:

Core units: 

• Organisational performance and culture in practice - This unit examines the connections between organisational structure and the wider world of work in a commercial context. It highlights the factors and trends, including the digital environment, that impact on business strategy and workforce planning, recognising the influence of culture, employee wellbeing and behaviour in delivering change and organisational performance.
• Evidence-based practice - This unit addresses the significance of capturing robust quantitative and qualitative evidence to inform meaningful insight to influence critical thinking. It focuses on analysing evidence through an ethical lens to improve decision-making and how measuring the impact of people practice is essential in creating value.
• Professional behaviours and valuing people - This unit focuses on how applying core professional behaviours such as ethical practice, courage and inclusivity can build positive working relationships and support employee voice and wellbeing. It considers how developing and mastering new professional behaviours and practice can impact performance.

Specialist units: 

• Employment relationship management - This unit examines the key approaches, practices and tools to manage and enhance the employee relationship to create better working lives and the significant impact this can have on organisational performance

• Talent management and workforce planning - This unit focuses on the impact of effective workforce planning in considering the development of diverse talent pools and how to contract and onboard the workforce. It also includes analysis of the potential cost to the organisation if this is poorly managed and the tools and interventions required to mitigate this risk

• Reward for performance and contribution - This unit focuses on how internal and external business factors influence reward strategies and policies, the financial drivers of the organisation and the impact of reward costs. It considers the importance of the role of people practice in supporting managers to make robust and professional reward judgements and the impact of rewarding performance

Optional units:

• Specialist employment law
• Diversity and inclusion
• Leadership and management development

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Building on the practical knowledge and understanding gained at the CIPS Level 4 Diploma in Procurement and Supply, your learning will focus on:

• Key aspects of risk in supply chains and mitigation of those risks
• Processing and evaluating contracts 
• Understanding the impact of legal implications when contracts are breached
• The different approaches to managing teams and individuals
• Sustainability and the managerial approaches that promote ethical practices

This qualification will help you to grow in confidence, improve organisational procurement and fulfill objectives.

You are required to complete 5 core modules, then choose your own learning pathway by selecting 3 elective modules. 

Five Core Modules

• Managing Teams and Individuals
• Managing Supply and Chain Risk
• Managing Contractual Risk
• Advanced Contract and Financial Management
• Managing Ethical Procurement and Supply

Three Elective modules:

• Category Management
• Project and Change Management
• Advanced Negotiation

Students can join at the start of new modules.  For our Level 5 programme these dates are as follows:

Draft programme for delivery of 2024/2025 programme is detailed below:

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This occupation is found in private, public and third sector national and multinational organisations and employers. It is found in every sector across the country including, for example; the health sector, finance sector, engineering and manufacturing sectors, business and professional services, education sector, retail sector, leisure sector, technology sector and construction.

There has been a growing demand for the professionalisation of coaching to include one-to-one coaching, team coaching, leadership coaching and for coaching skills to be embedded within culture and governance infrastructures to support future ways of working.

The broad purpose of the occupation is to work with a wide range of individuals and teams across organisations, to empower and engage with them to enhance their professional performance. Coaching is a way of leading in a non-directive manner, helping people to learn through deep listening and reflective, open questions rather than instructing, giving advice or making suggestions.

Coaching is a way of treating people, a way of thinking and a way of being which is seen as vital to supporting individuals and organisations in increasingly volatile and ever-changing environments. The underlying and ever present purpose of coaching is building the self-belief of others, regardless of the context, to be curious and self-aware, better equipping them to collaborate, innovate, deal with the increasing pace of change and get the best from increasingly diverse environments. Effective coaching is future focussed, releases potential, and enables transition, transformation and change for business improvement. Understanding self, commitment to self-development, managing the contract, building the relationship, enabling insight and learning, outcome and action orientation, use of models and techniques and evaluation are key overarching areas which feature within this occupational area.

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This role could be called an HR Consultant or an HR Business Partner in different organisations. Individuals in this role will use their HR expertise to provide and lead the delivery of HR solutions to business challenges, together with tailored advice to the business in a number of HR areas, typically to mid-level and senior managers. They could be in a generalist role, where they provide support across a range of HR areas, or a specialist role, where they focus on and have in depth expertise in a specific area of HR; likely to be Resourcing, Total Reward, Organisation Development, or HR Operations. Whichever of these is chosen, they will have a good grounding across the whole range of HR disciplines as this is contained in both of the qualification options included in this standard. They will often be required to make decisions and recommendations on what the business can/should do in a specific situation. They will be influencing managers to change their thinking as well as bringing best practice into the organisation. They are also likely to lead the people related elements of business or HR projects. Whatever their role, they will need to link the work they do to the context and priorities of the business. In a larger organisation they may be one of a team supporting the business and they may also have responsibility for managing people.

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This role could be called an HR Consultant or an HR Business Partner in different organisations. Individuals in this role will use their HR expertise to provide and lead the delivery of HR solutions to business challenges, together with tailored advice to the business in a number of HR areas, typically to mid-level and senior managers. They could be in a generalist role, where they provide support across a range of HR areas, or a specialist role, where they focus on and have in depth expertise in a specific area of HR; likely to be Resourcing, Total Reward, Organisation Development, or HR Operations. Whichever of these is chosen, they will have a good grounding across the whole range of HR disciplines as this is contained in both of the qualification options included in this standard. They will often be required to make decisions and recommendations on what the business can/should do in a specific situation. They will be influencing managers to change their thinking as well as bringing best practice into the organisation. They are also likely to lead the people related elements of business or HR projects. Whatever their role, they will need to link the work they do to the context and priorities of the business. In a larger organisation they may be one of a team supporting the business and they may also have responsibility for managing people.

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