PgDip Senior People Practice


Institution code	H36
School of study	Hertfordshire Business School
Course length	Part Time, 2 Years
Location	University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield

Entry requirements
The University of Hertfordshire is committed to welcoming students with a wide range of qualifications and levels of experience. The entry requirements listed on the course pages provide a guide to the minimum level of qualifications needed to study each course. However, we have a flexible approach to admissions and each application will be considered on an individual basis.
Our entry requirements are either:
An honours degree (at level 2:2 or above) or
A higher degree or
A professional qualification of equivalent standard in any discipline
And
Typically 3 years of relevant full-time work experience. Those with less than 3 years full-time work experience will be considered on an individual basis taking into consideration their business exposure, leadership skills and professional achievements over the last 3 years
Level 2 English and Maths

Additional requirements

During the application stage, you must demonstrate you have responsibility for, or are on a career trajectory to have responsibility for:
Applying your knowledge and expertise to lead the design, implementation and evaluation of people policies and practices aligned to the needs of the organisation and its employees
Leading people, projects and/or playing a key role in larger organisation-wide programmes, managing your own work with a high level of autonomy
Interacting with a range of stakeholders across your organisation, creating medium to long-term value for a wide audience
Transitioning or playing a key role in transitioning an organisation’s workforce to a sustainable, ethical, or net carbon zero focused model in order to fight climate change
Identifying longer term opportunities and risks
Resources that may include budgets, people and assets
Keeping up to date with key trends and developments in the profession is critical to this occupation.

About the course

The Senior People Professional apprenticeship combines a flexible online curriculum, face-to-face learning, and dedicated work-based support to help people management practitioners advance their careers. You can also choose to progress from a PG Diploma to an MSc, where you'll undertake strategic business projects and refine applied research skills to further enhance your career prospects.

This course is specifically designed for experienced HR professionals who are currently in a leadership position or aspire to similar roles. This course is suitable for:

Experienced HR leaders and strategic HR business partners who want to develop their strategic people management skills
Senior people professionals who want to develop as internal HR consultants
Senior people professionals looking to understand the wider business and how people management contributes to organisational strategic priorities
HR professionals involved in the design, implementation or evaluation of people policies and strategies
Experienced people professionals looking to step up to more strategic and senior roles in HR management
HR professionals who are part of a talent pipeline or fast-track talent programme to become future strategic people leaders.

Final Award:

PG Diploma Senior People Practice
With the opportunity to top up to MSc Strategic Human Resource Management

You may choose to leave the programme with a final award of PG Diploma Senior People Practice on completion of 120 credits and a pass in the final zero-credit consolidation module. Alternatively, you can progress to a final Applied Project worth 60 credits to gain an MSc Strategic Human Resource Management.

Why choose this course?

The purpose of this apprenticeship is to support people management practitioners in your career development and enable you to develop the knowledge, skills and behaviours required to instigate and lead people-related initiatives.

The structure of the PG Diploma provides a blended delivery incorporating a flexible online curriculum, a face-to-face learning community and dedicated support for work-based learning. If you choose to progress to an MSc award, you will design, deliver and evaluate a strategic level business project whilst cultivating the applied research skills required to succeed in a dynamic operating environment. Throughout this journey you will develop the confidence and capabilities to enhance your career prospects whilst adding value to an organisation.

What will I study?

You will study a range of modules which incorporate theoretical knowledge and understanding with the practical application of skills and behaviours in the your workplace.

Key areas of study include:

HR impact and performance: align HR practice with organisational objectives to deliver maximum performance, help your organisation to develop and improve individual, team and organisational performance. You'll also use reward strategies to encourage and influence performance in the context of legal, social and environmental factors
HR strategy and professional practice: how you can create effective and efficient policies, processes and practices to create competitive advantage at the organisation level and how should the HR function adapt to changing economic, social and political factors
HR analytics and technologies: exploiting, deploying and utilising the latest technologies and tools to support your organisation and its processes, how the HR function justifies its investments and provides a return on investment for its activities and how technology can be used to enable ‘Green’ HR
Creating HR value: create authentic business value through your contribution, act as internal consultants to your organisation and lead business change activities across your organisation.

Level 7

Module	Credits	Compulsory/optional
HR Impact and Performance	30 Credits	Compulsory
This module will identify and critically analyse the strategic organisational contribution of effective people management, evaluating Human Resource Management as both an organisational department as well as an organisation-wide activity. It will detail how HR professionals align HR practice with wider organisational objectives to create and maximise organisational performance. The legal, social and environmental context in which HR operates will be the starting point for this module; a central focus will be the role of reward and remuneration in supporting organisational processes, critically evaluating how organisations might develop and improve individual, team and organisational performance. It will critically reflect on concepts of employee well-being and engagement and how these create value.
HR Strategy and Professional Practice	30 Credits	Compulsory
The development and execution of HR (people) strategy is a critical organisational capability. A key focus of this module will be a critical evaluation of how HR professionals develop and deliver HR strategy that is appropriately aligned to the wider organisational business strategy. The focus will be strategic rather than operational, exploring the changing economic, social, cultural, technological, legal and political factors facing modern organisations and how these shape and influence people management policies, processes and practices. The module will critically evaluate various inputs to the strategy development process, including critical reflection of the influence of regulation, compliance and governance. A key focus will be on Describing and critically evaluating the skills and tools needed to build coaching and mentoring capabilities within organisations, both within the HR function and across people managers within the wider organisation.
HR Analytics and Technologies	30 Credits	Compulsory
This module critically evaluates the use of HR technology tools (both current and emerging) that support operational and strategic HR business processes, together with a critical analysis of their linkages to analytics and evidence-based approaches to the creation and development of people strategies. The module also critically reflects and synthesises current and future business trends such as the impact and implications of AI, the use of social media in business and the transition to the green and low carbon economy, using real world business cases.

Professional Accreditations

The apprenticeship learning outcomes are mapped to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) professional standards and as a successfully completed apprentice, you would gain Chartered Membership with CIPD. They are one of the leading awarding bodies in HR and their qualifications internationally demonstrate your expertise in people management.

Careers

HR skills are fundamental in every organisation and industry. Once you’ve completed your apprenticeship, you’ll be able to step into a senior strategic role in human resource management.

This course is the perfect stepping stone into HR consultancy; you will gain the skills to design, implement and evaluate people policies and strategies in any organisational structure.

The University’s careers service provides a range of support to help apprentices develop skills attractive to employers. Visit our careers page for more information.

Course fact sheets
PgDip Senior People Practice (Higher Apprenticeship)	Download

Programme specifications
PgDip Senior People Practice (Higher Apprenticeship)	Download

Additional information
Sandwich placement or study abroad year	n/a
Applications open to international and EU students	No

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