CIPD Level 3 or 5?

[user7784]

I am degree educated and currently working as a HR Assistant. My organisation have offered to pay for me to complete my CIPD course. I am really not sure whether to start on level 3 or 5.

I initially thought level 5 but one of my colleagues is struggling a lot with it. Part of the reason is she said the assistant role does not allow you to cover a lot of the topics. She said she wishes she had started on level 3.

Anyone any experience?

My daughter is doing her level 5 now, sponsored by her organisation. She gets involved with HR as she interviews and manages a large team. She wants to move towards an HR based role, hence why she wanted to get her CIPD qualification.

She has gone straight in at level 5. She too queried which level to start at and all the advice she got pointed anyone with a degree level qualification to go straight in at level 5.

She is about half way through, and hasn’t found it at all difficult, although it is time consuming.

Good luck!

Level 5 given you have a degree.

As long as you are able to access work related learning and have opportunities to get involved in areas covered at level 5 then you could go straight to level 5.
However an HR assistant role would be more suited to level 3 in terms of topics covered.
I've done both (and have an unrelated degree) and am glad I did level 3 first as it gave me the foundation knowledge to build on. I know some people who went straight to level 5 but felt they'd missed out on some of the 'why's about what they were doing but if you have HR experience this may not be so much of an issue.