Meet Sarah Jordan, who has just completed her CIPD Level 3 Certificate in HR with Home Learning College. Getting qualified has helped her to achieve her goal of an HR Advisor role.

Why did you choose to get CIPD qualified?

I needed a qualification to make me more employable!

I’ve always been interested in HR. I did a degree in business studies and completed my dissertation in HR. I fell into an agency recruitment role but it was quite stressful and about this time last year I left without a job to go to. I knew then that I wanted to get into HR because I enjoy dealing with people.

I was applying for HR jobs but I was being turned away because I had no experience in HR but I was overqualified for HR admin jobs. I was struggling and I realised – I need to do a qualification!

I rang Home Learning College and talked through the CIPD Level 3 course with an advisor; it sounded really interesting and I thought why not?

Then I went for a job interview for an in-house recruitment role and said I was doing this course and it actually helped me get the job because it showed I was committed to learning more.

How have you found the course?

I really enjoyed that I could do it at home and in my own time, it fitted with the way I like to work.

I knew quite a bit about HR from my degree module but I still learnt a lot and could apply it in my job so it reinforced my knowledge.

The online campus was really good. Compared to what I’ve used before, this online course was so much better. It was easy to navigate and find things, the content was really easy to digest especially as it all relates to the learning outcomes.

I also enjoyed the online live classes, and if I couldn’t attend them live, I would watch the recorded versions so it was useful to be able to do that.

What has happened with your role since you started studying?

I started the in-house recruitment role with the aim of getting my foot in the door and becoming more involved in HR. We have had some retention issues and with the skills I have learnt in the course I felt I could really help that. I expressed an interest in having more aspects of HR in my job so I could use the skills from the qualification and I was given some HR responsibilities.

Now, my role is being changed to HR Advisor which was actually on my personal development plan – it was my aim and I’ve achieved it so it’s brilliant. I think it happened mostly because I completed the qualification and my employer decided they should use my skills!

Through the course, we have been working on behaviours and the profession map, and I realised what strengths I needed to use; it really helped me to reflect on my performance and where I wanted to be.

How do you feel about your decision to get qualified now?

I’m in a completely different place to where I was a year ago so it has definitely been worth it. The qualification has helped me get a job, negotiate my pay and now change my role. Plus it will definitely improve my prospects in the future.