As the role of HR rapidly evolves, against a backdrop of developing technologies and globalisation, the role that qualifications play in enabling entrance to – and progression through – this ever-shifting profession is open to interpretation. To what extent, for example, does a point-in-time qualification achieved, say, 10 years ago, inform the challenges an HR professional faces in 2025? Is it necessary – to help face those challenges, but also as an industry signifier – to continuously upskill via qualifications?
Are HR qualifications viewed as a non-negotiable by employers? Do they adequately address the changing demands on HR professionals?
Of course, formal qualifications aren’t the only way into a HR career. Ultimately, as other routes into and through the profession emerge, do qualifications, and subsequent CIPD membership, represent money, and time, well spent?
The gold standard
For Gary Cookson, director of the consultancy Epic HR, CIPD qualifications are a gold standard in terms of substance and learning. They are also an important signifier of knowledge and professionalism.
Cookson concedes that CIPD certification “isn’t necessary for entry, or to remain skilled”, but adds: “I believe it should be.”
“Much like in accountancy, there are levels of skills and expertise beyond which only certain grades can perform certain activities, like signing off company accounts. The same should apply in the people profession,” continues Cookson, who is a chartered fellow of the CIPD, the highest rank of membership available.
Mark Hendy, chief HR officer for fire solutions business Siderise, who is also a chartered fellow, tells me he wears it as a badge of honour. While he doesn’t believe it is necessary to have a CIPD qualification or membership to enter the profession, “I believe it is required and important as people develop through their HR careers,” he explains. Prianka Jaidka, HR business partner for LSL Property Services, says that CIPD membership is essential for entering and remaining skilled in the HR profession.
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For others, however, such as Katie Murray, an HR writer, the benefits don’t always justify the cost. Once CIPD qualifications are completed, different tiers of membership are unlocked, and there are costs associated with every level of membership: 18 months at chartered fellow level, from 1 January 2025 to 30 June 2026, will set you back £363, for example. A CIPD Advanced Diploma, which upon completion unlocks either chartered member or chartered fellow levels of membership, typically costs between £3,000 and £7,000.
Murray wrote on LinkedIn in 2022 that, after 16 years of renewing her membership, she decided that “CIPD membership wasn’t worth it.” For her, the CIPD had too much “in-house bias”.
More recently, in January 2025, HR consultant Michelle Hartley posted on LinkedIn that she had worked “super hard for over six years” to get CIPD qualifications and credentials, and to secure a masters, only to be “disappointed in how the learning didn’t match [her] job, and how it seemed so far from the reality of HR life”.
Hartley has now created an alternative programme, although, at the time of writing, she still had “FCIPD” as part of her LinkedIn profile.
Cookson acknowledges that there is “fierce debate about whether the qualifications in their current form meet the needs of the profession”, adding that “those who go through them would say they do, whereas those who have forged a career without the qualifications would rightly point to the value of experience and other ways of learning. For the most part, the existing qualifications play a role in advancing the careers of professionals, but there are many talented senior professionals without the qualifications who would say the opposite.
“A quick scan through job vacancies shows that a level of CIPD membership or qualification is asked for by the majority of organisations. It is a recognised standard and language that needs little interpretation.”
‘Keeping your letters’
In her LinkedIn post, Murray described a subset of people who keep up their membership to retain their letters: “Reluctants see few benefits, but you want to keep your letters,” she wrote.
“You worked hard to get them, and clients ask for your credentials. So you feel obliged to keep making payments.”
In the HR job market, these letters can be indispensable. Angela Buxton, executive director of people and strategy for Citizens Advice, is a chartered fellow. She describes herself as a passive member, and noted that being chartered was essential to her current role.
“The fact that I’ve kept up my membership partly is because I have the luxury of funding it myself,” she says. “Not every organisation funds it. I could put it on the expenses, but I don’t because I work for a charity.
“At my level, people want you to be qualified, and it looks better to be a fellow than anything else, because it’s the most senior. I do it for those reasons. But I certainly don’t think it’s necessary for everyone.”
Victoria Winkler, the CIPD’s standards and professional development director, tells me that the industry body is seeing a continuous increase in employers asking for CIPD qualifications. “The trend insofar as we are observing it is certainly that job adverts ask for qualifications. That continues to increase,” she says, adding that this is paired with an increase in the uptake of qualifications.
“People are very proud of doing [them] and see that as the foundation and the advancement of their career,” she says. Because of the shift in how the HR profession is perceived – as credible and increasingly professionalised – there is increased demand for qualifications that reflect this, which drives the need for increased recognition, she argues.
For Tutu Popoola, director of HR consultancy Sleek HR, “CIPD membership is a strong signal of your commitment to continuous professional development and staying current with industry standards”. But beyond being an industry signal, the extent to which the current qualifications match the needs of HR professionals is up for debate.
Hendy states that in general terms, the current qualifications do equip HR professionals with the skills they need to both do their job effectively and for future careers, but adds: “it’s very difficult to produce a syllabus for a future profession that is evolving continuously.”
Popoola, a CIPD-qualified HR professional who has also taught HR at university level, notes that “the current CIPD qualifications often provide theoretical knowledge but may fall short on practical application unless paired with real-world experience.”
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The DEI conundrum
At the Inclusive Workplace Conference last November, Ashanti Bentil-Dhue, who founded the consultancy Competence Centre for Workplace Equity, stated that diversity, equality and inclusion (DEI) consultants are largely unqualified, with no competency framework in place, leaving HR professionals at risk of hiring external consultants who do not deliver ROI and may even cause reputational damage.
For Bentil-Dhue, who is not a CIPD member, “current HR qualifications, including those offered by CIPD, provide a solid foundation for HR leaders, especially in understanding core areas such as employment law, workforce planning, and employee relations.” However, “the rapidly evolving workplace landscape, fuelled by technology, globalisation, and growing attention to DEI, requires HR professionals to develop broader strategic, analytical, and change management skills.
“While qualifications equip professionals with baseline knowledge, they can sometimes fall short in preparing leaders for more complex challenges, such as creating inclusive cultures, managing hybrid workforces, and using data to drive people strategies,” she says.
Standardising DEI qualifications is both “possible and necessary”, she argues, and has demonstrated this by developing her own competency framework.
“While there are some excellent programmes available, many consultants enter the field without formal training, relying instead on lived experience or a passion for the topic,” she explains. “While those are important, they are not enough to deliver effective, sustainable organisational change.
“The lack of standardised qualifications means that organisations often struggle to distinguish credible practitioners from those who lack the skills to create measurable impact. Current qualifications on the market are a start, but they need to be more comprehensive and aligned with organisational realities to be truly adequate.”
HR is undergoing a transformation, according to Bentil-Dhue, driven by advances in technology, changing employee expectations, and the increasing importance of DEI and wellbeing. She argues that qualifications will need to reflect these shifts by incorporating more practical, future-focused content such as people analytics, digital transformation, artificial intelligence (AI) and organisational culture.
“The future of HR qualifications will likely include a blend of traditional learning, micro-credentials, and on-the-job experience,” she adds. “There is also potential for greater emphasis on specialisation, enabling HR professionals to tailor their development to their specific career aspirations.”
Is standardisation an achievable aim?
There is broad support for DEI qualifications to be standardised, but question marks over how it could be achieved in practice. For Woosh Raza, founder of the HR and DEI consultancy Woosh, it is imperative that DEI qualifications are standardised, “to bolster the credibility of EDI and to support organisations”.
Jaidka agrees, stating that there’s a viable path to standardisation – but not without consultation: “As with creating any qualification, it is important to seek feedback from those in the roles who can provide real value,” she says.
Popoola emphasises the importance of recognising that HR and workplace DEI are distinct, while noting that they can overlap: “While HR provides the structures and processes for employee support, DEI ensures that those systems operate fairly and inclusively.
“As someone who has participated in Ashanti Bentil-Dhue’s training on her competency framework and runs an HR and DEI practice, I see value in introducing a standardised approach,” she emphasises. “However, the DEI field is inherently complex and context-driven, so standardisation must be implemented thoughtfully, to avoid oversimplifying the field, or creating unnecessary barriers.”
The broader picture
Explaining how the CIPD is more broadly adapting its qualifications to the changing needs and demands of the profession, Winkler points to the body’s profession map, an interactive set of HR standards that is updated to reflect the evolution of the profession and to incorporate guidance on emerging developments, such as AI. “The map involves significant input from the industry, from employers, from the profession, and from academia, to keep it updated,” she says, adding that the CIPD commits to updating its standards a minimum of once a year: “We often do it twice a year, depending on what’s going on,” she states.
All CIPD qualifications feed from that map, explains Winkler. “We’re really keen to look at some essentials that will evolve and change. Equally, we look at what is impacting the profession now: ‘What do HR professionals at all levels need to be focused on for the future?’ Qualifications are one element of that.”
DEI qualifications: The CIPD view
Winkler describes DEI as a “golden thread that runs through a lot of HR practice and policy”. “When we’re looking at skills and expertise, EDI features very heavily within our qualifications,” she explains. “That doesn’t mean that people might not want to take a more specialist approach to it.
“Within the profession map, we have an EDI specialism, and some deep-dive standards, particularly around EDI, that add to what we think a typical HR professional might be involved in. We have an EDI accredited programme, and we support individuals who are focused on working in that area of specialism.
“But for us, it’s really important to see [DEI as] within the framework, within the family, of the people profession. Whatever area of HR you’re looking at, you would expect an EDI lens to feature very heavily.”
Looking to the future
Most of the people spoken to for this feature are confident that CIPD qualifications and membership will remain highly regarded in the sector. But many emphasised the importance of on-the-ground experience, unique skill sets and perspectives, and being open to alternative routes into the HR profession such as apprenticeships.
Ted Miller, chief operating officer of The Talent Labs, a management and development firm, perhaps puts it best: “Qualifications, memberships and accreditations aren’t necessary to enter the HR profession. Professional development on the job can be just as effective a route in, and practical experience is more valuable to employers.
“However, qualifications do still affect what level you can enter the profession at. For upward career progression, they hold weight and provide a good development pathway.”
Jaidka praised the apprenticeship route, saying: “It’s great to see that the profession is being made more accessible.” Raza echoes this sentiment: “I am seeing more entry-level roles in teams I have led being sourced from vocational routes,” he says, “which is great to see from a social mobility perspective”.
Ultimately, what emerged through my conversations was a picture of a dynamic, engaged profession grappling with how best to remain skilled, relevant and accessible. While opinions differed, the goal seemed unanimous: for the profession, and its professionals, to be the best it – and they – can be.
“It’s really heartening to see the number of employers that are choosing to support individuals through an HR and a learning and development apprenticeship [for which the CIPD completes the end point assessment],” Winkler points out. “Numbers are going up.
“More people are seeking professional recognition, and more people feel part of that community, which keeps the momentum going. It indicates a really positive outlook.”
This article was published in the January/February 2025 edition of HR magazine.
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