My Career Journey: From Finance to HR with CIPD

One of my life teachings is that every situation in life is an opportunity waiting to be explored.

When the pandemic hit and the lockdown began, it allowed me to re-evaluate my career. At the same time, I also began to understand that I cannot work within finance anymore due to my faith. I had built up extensive experience of working within the finance world and I was willing to do a complete career change.

The lockdown allowed me to think and analyse, focusing on what my strengths are, what I like to do, what my future goal would be and how do I get there. It was my wife who suggested that I might be good at working within human resource management (HRM). This led me to start looking into the HRM and wherever I looked, the name CIPD often cropped up.

Coming from a finance background, I undertook detailed due-diligence checks on CIPD and realised that CIPD is not just a course or a qualification but much more. I joined up to their mailing list and I started getting their weekly emails on all things HRM related.

Soon after, I realised that I needed to sign up for one of their courses, and so my online research focus shifted to CIPD learning providers.

Why I Went with ICS Learn

Another of my life teachings is that you should always treat people the way you would like to be treated, which is being honest, courteous, and genuine.

I started to contact all the approved CIPD learning providers, starting with getting the approved learning providers’ names operating within my region the UK. I started checking their websites, reading reviews, and looking at the prices, followed by making contact with the learning providers.

One thing to note here is we all have different requirements and we learn differently so it’s important to highlight what’s important to you as a learner. I am a person who goes for service and I have a very simple test to work out who I should focus on and who I should ignore. I test the way an organisation treats their potential customers first. For me, this says a lot. So I send a specific email out to the customer service team and I wait for the reply. I look for the time it takes them to reply, how helpful they were and were they system-generated generic emails, do they take ownership of it or just pass me around to someone else.

Out of many approved learning providers, it was ICS Learn who was always quick to reply, they were always clear in their communications, and had many positive reviews. Every time I rang them, I received excellent service. I felt that they genuinely cared about their customers and are always willing to go the extra mile in delivering excellent service.

I also learnt that they are fully online-based meaning I could learn from wherever in the world as long as I had access to good internet speed. Their course materials were easy to read, they had personal tutors who are always there to help you out via any means of communication, I even got email alerts when one of the tutors are going on their annual leave.

It’s this detail of service which won me over, along with good reviews, competitively priced course packages, real-time tutor contacts, and live/online classes with all the CIPD materials in one platform. I decided to go with ICS Learn.

How I Passed CIPD with ICS Learn

One of my other life learnings is that as you get older, time goes quickly and you become busier. Working a full-time job from home while the chaos of the pandemic raged on meant that I had very little time which I could set aside for studying. On top of this, I was also aiming to tackle the hardest level of CIPD qualification.

The first month went within a blink of an eye and I hadn’t even managed to read a chapter of my CIPD book. This was the moment when my wife had a chat with me reminding me that I won’t pass CIPD if I am not doing any work for it. I realised that I needed help.

I reached out to ICS Learn and started going through their study help files. I also joined their student community and started to reach out to other students, learning from their experiences while all the time my tutors were there providing me with words of encouragement.

It dawned on me that ICS Learn provides you with all the tools which you may need, from real-time tutor contact to their student community, chat forums, as well as all the learning materials; however, if I don’t engage and use these tools then I won’t get the benefit from it.

Once I passed the first module, I understood and believed that I can do this if only I work with my tutors and follow their guidance. I planned my days out and I realised consistency is key; I may not read a whole chapter due to life commitments but being consistent with my reading was important. I truly believe it's not the quantity but it’s the quality of reading which helps the most, added with being consistent throughout.

I managed to complete the full CIPD Level 7 Advanced Diploma in HRM in 17 months when generally speaking it takes 24 months. I am a living proof that anyone who sets their mind to it can achieve their goals provided they have the right support and the tools to hand.

What I'm Doing After CIPD

Another of my life learnings tells me that there is no ending to learning and self-improvement. CIPD was just a stepping-stone for me to go on and build on top of this. At the end of the day, I want to make a positive change for all starting with myself.

Since I have finished my CIPD, I am now working through upgrading my membership to Chartered level. I have started a part-time PhD on HRM with the University of Chester and I am working on starting up my HR consultancy company and HRM coaching and mentoring business.

My final life learning is that beneficial knowledge only becomes beneficial when it is shared and used to make positive changes in people’s lives. I only hope that reading about my CIPD journey with ICS Learn may help you to achieve your own goal and make you happy and successful. 

At the end of the day, all I will say is: Yes, you too can finish CIPD with ICS Learn.

Take control of your future and enrol on a 100% online CIPD qualification today.