Lily’s HR career has gone from strength to strength in the last 18 months. Not only has she successfully completed the CIPD Associate Diploma in People Management on Reed Learning’s fast-track programme, but she has been promoted. Now an HR Adviser, she says the standout experience of her learning journey was her personal tutor, Lorraine Bartlett, who supported her throughout the qualification. Here she tells her story.
The Challenge
Like many graduates, Lily was unsure of what to do for a career after leaving university. After a brief spell teaching, she decided to try agency recruitment before joining a London accountancy firm in a combined administrative and in-house recruitment role three years ago.
A major people transformation project led Lily to side-step into HR, first in a support role and later, after a promotion, to HR Adviser. With the company’s rapid expansion to over 1,000 employees, Lily’s job is busy and varied covering all aspects of an HR generalist role. She quickly realised a CIPD qualification would provide her with the skills and knowledge to support her current position as well as improve her career prospects in the future.
The Solution
A colleague who was already studying for her Level 5 CIPD qualification, recommended Reed Learning and, as a result, Lily enrolled on our online fast-track Associate Diploma course which is usually completed in 12 months.
My colleague spoke highly of Reed Learning so I didn’t even shop around for other providers as it was a tried and tested option. I wanted a flexible independent learning programme that would allow me the freedom to manage the work at my own pace while offering the support of a personal tutor. The fast-track Diploma course was ideal as it suited my independent learning style.
All Reed Learning CIPD students and apprentices are supported throughout their studies by a personal tutor. Lily was assigned to Lorraine Bartlett, an experienced adviser with 24 years in retail management under her belt, much of it working as an HR generalist involved in every aspect of the people profession.
The Results
Thanks to hard work and Lorraine’s guidance, Lily managed to complete all her assignments within nine months.
Lorraine was absolutely fantastic and has definitely been the standout feature of my learning experience. She is so warm and approachable as well as having bags of experience. She definitely went above and beyond the one-to-one sessions included in my learning contract and was always available for a ten-minute call or an email to provide advice. I don’t think I could have got through the qualification without her; she literally made all the difference. I am her number one fan and will genuinely miss talking to her!
Now having gained her CIPD Associate Diploma, Lily believes she has the knowledge and skills to excel at her job as an HR Adviser.
I think I would have struggled to grasp some of the concepts around employee relations that I am now doing in my current role without being CIPD qualified so studying for the Diploma has improved my work by 100%. It has been a really positive learning experience and I am pleased I chose Reed Learning for my CIPD qualification. Obviously, Lorraine and all the resources on the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) made all the difference, but overall it just felt a very easy, seamless process. It’s great to have a professional qualification in HR to expand my career opportunities in the future.