How do I become a Chartered Member?
There are different ‘routes’ to Chartered Membership, depending on your qualifications and career history.
- If you are an existing Associate (who has previously completed CIPD's Advanced Diploma (or equivalent) or a CIPD accredited Postgraduate Diploma/Masters Degree from a recognised university approved by CIPD) or you are an existing Chartered Member wishing to progress, you can use our Upgrade assessment.
The first step is to check your eligibility with our free upgrade pre assessment tool Once you've completed this, we'll email you to confirm if you're eligible and send you the booking link. And if you book your assessment by 28 February 2025, we're waiving the upgrading assessment fee - this means you can save up to £250.
- If neither of these apply, we’re thrilled to introduce our newly streamlined study free route to Chartered Membership, Experience Assessment — making it easier than ever to showcase your expertise as a trusted decision-maker in the people profession. In just a few weeks, you can unlock Chartered Membership and open the door to bigger roles, greater earning potential, and new career growth opportunities.
The first step is to complete our free Pre-Assessment tool to help you understand what’s involved and whether you have the necessary experience to apply now. Plus, take advantage of an exclusive 25% discount if you register for Experience Assessment by 31 March 2025!*
Register for Experience Assessment today and save 25%
What is the pass rate for Experience Assessment?
The latest figures show that 96% of all candidates applying for membership via Experience Assessment were successful in 2024. We’re keen to support you at every step of the way so we’ve developed a range of free tools before you apply so you’re clear about what’s involved, what evidence will be needed, and how to best prepare.
Any candidate who completes Experience Assessment and does not achieve the membership level they applied for is eligible for one free re-assessment opportunity provided this is scheduled to take place within one year of their original Professional Discussion date.
What is the pass rate for Upgrading?
The pass rate for our upgrading assessment route for those members applying for Chartered Member and Chartered Fellow membership, is 97%. As with Experience Assessment, we have a range of tools on our website to help you assess your current skills and knowledge against the membership standards, as well as video and candidate guides to help you prepare for the professional discussion.
If you are unsuccessful with your upgrade assessment is there a cool-down period before you can apply again?
If you are unsuccessful with your upgrade assessment, you will receive feedback from your assessor regarding the gaps in your evidence against the membership standards as well as recommendations on next steps.
We recommend you wait at least three months before re-applying, to allow yourself time to reflect on the feedback and prepare.
I have completed a Masters in Human Resource Management. Can I upgrade?
You could be eligible if you are currently an Associate Member who successfully completed the CIPD Advanced Diploma (or past equivalent) or a CIPD accredited Postgraduate Diploma/Masters degree from a recognised university approved by CIPD.
If you’re not sure, please email our team at memupgrading@cipd.co.uk with details of your qualification history, along with your membership details, and they’ll be happy to check this for you.
Offers
How do I benefit from the free upgrade offer?
The first step is to check your eligibility with our free upgrade pre assessment tool. Once you've completed this, we'll verify that you have the necessary qualifications and email you confirmation and send you the booking link.
To benefit from our free upgrading assessment offer you need to book your assessment by 28 February 2025 - you then have up to and including 30 June 2025 to complete your actual assessment. You’ll have the option to select a date and time that best works for you.
Is the upgrade assessment from Associate to Chartered Member free?
Yes, we are currently waiving our Upgrading Assessment fee for all upgrading bookings made up to 28 February 2025, ie Associate to Chartered Member, Associate to Chartered Fellow or Chartered Member to Chartered Fellow.
Can you register now to take advantage of the discount if you're awaiting results of your Advanced Level 7 Diploma?
All students who complete the Advanced Level 7 Diploma successfully, qualify for a free upgrade assessment via written application within one year of completion.
In your situation, you’ll need to wait for your results to come through before completing the written application. Typically, we recommend that you wait until you’re near the end of that first year before applying to ensure you’ve had time to put your learning into practice.
In the meantime, you can use our free upgrade pre assessment tool to understand the types of evidence you’ll be asked to present.
Is there a delay with responses to the pre-assessment on line tool at the moment?
We have been extremely busy but if you have been waiting more than 5 days for a response from us, please email memupgrading@cipd.co.uk with your membership details and the team will get back to you.
If I was an Associate member but my membership was not renewed do I have to rejoin and pay the full membership?
In order to apply to upgrade you do need to be in current membership with us. If you contact our membership renewals helpline on +44 (0)20 8612 6242 a member of the team will be able to help you with that.
How much does Experience Assessment Cost?
Associate Member
Standard fee: £1,996.00
Price Promotion 25% discount: £1,497.00
Chartered Member
Standard fee: £2,045.00
Price Promotion 25% discount: £1,534.75
Chartered Fellow
Current fee: £2,375.00
Price Promotion 25% discount: £1,781.25
Take advantage of an exclusive 25% discount if you register for Experience Assessment by 31 March 2025!*
I have already taken the pre assessment tool and have a positive confirmation to enable me to take the assessment for Chartered Member. If I continue submitting the document will I automatically get the discount as it shows full cost on the documentation I received.
All Experience Assessment registration forms submitted between now and midnight on 31 March 2025 will be processed at the discounted rates shown above, irrespective of what cost is shown on the registration form.
How long does Experience Assessment take?
Experience Assessment is a flexible, non-study option designed to fit around you. You choose when to start. Candidates typically need to invest around three to four days in total over a four week period to complete their written submission. How and when you do that work is up to you. The Professional Discussion takes around 1.5 hours and happens between 3-4 weeks after you submit your written document. Your outcome will be available within four weeks of your Professional Discussion.
What areas are covered within the Upgrading assessment?
There are headline questions we ask in the video assessment(s) for Chartered Member and Chartered Fellow, and we have shared them here, so you have time to reflect on which work based examples best showcase the evidence needed.
At Chartered Member, we will ask you about:
- A time where you have led the development and delivery of a new or improved people approach that has had a medium-term impact in your organisation.
- A time when you’ve taken a lead role in planning and implementing medium-term people change.
- An example of when you have made a difficult decision as a people professional in the face of opposition.
- An example of how you have built the people capability of others.
- How you connect with other people professionals, both internally and externally, to inform your thinking?
At Chartered Fellow, we will ask you about:
- Your organisation’s (or an organisation you have worked with) vision and strategy and how this informs the people strategy.
- A time when you’ve developed and implemented a new people strategy that has created long-term value for your organisation (or the profession, if appropriate)
- A time when you’ve taken a leading role in long-term organisational change.
- An example of how you built the capability of other people professionals and/or how you have contributed to the development of the people profession.
- How you connect with other senior people professionals and leaders to shape the people agenda
For each of these headline questions, we will ask you some follow-up clarification points to make sure we give you the best opportunity to demonstrate your experience against the membership standards.
For our written assessment at Chartered Member level, you can download and view the questions here.
I'm completing my Level 7 at the moment but want to complete Experience Assessment now to obtain Chartered Member rather than wait to upgrade in the future when I complete my qualification. Is this an option for me?
You can complete Experience Assessment at any time irrespective of your other studies if it’s important to you to achieve Chartered Membership now. We’d encourage you to reflect on whether you have the breadth of knowledge and practical experience needed to be successful. You also need to consider the cost implications as you would be eligible for a free upgrade to Chartered Member when you complete your studies.
The Assessment Approach
What is the best way to display experience in a CV to assist with your application?
The more information you can provide in your CV about your current role as well as other roles you’ve held, with particular focus on the last 5 years, the more contextual insight your assessor will have in the professional discussion.
Including your career history chronologically, from your present role and working backwards is recommended, along with a brief paragraph under each role of the nature of your work and a set of bullet points on your key achievements in role.
Please focus on clarity and avoiding organisational specific acronyms!
Does my manager needs to provide feedback as part of my upgrade application?
I have friends who have upgraded and this was part of the process.
We no longer require stakeholder feedback as part of either the Experience Assessment or the Upgrading Assessment route.
We made this decision recently as part of our continuous review approach to streamline our assessment routes in response to customer and assessor feedback.
Would testimonials from key stakeholders be an acceptable form of demonstrating impact?
You are free to use any form of evidence that best showcases the work you’ve delivered and the impact of your work. Typically, it will be enough for you to describe the quantitative and qualitative impact of your work either in the virtual discussion, or in bullet points in the written submission.
How can I provide evidence if my organization prohibits sharing confidential information?
We recognise the sensitive nature of the information you will be sharing, so please share your work without revealing sensitive information. For example, by generalising certain details (i.e. not mentioning specific names) and anonymising information around clients, colleagues or projects.
Are you given the exact questions asked during the upgrade assessment call?
We have shared the headline questions you will be asked during your professional discussion and you can access the written assessment questions here.
Is experience dating back further than 5 years considered if you have had a number of maternity stints in the space of 6 years but have key experience from before and current?
Yes, if you’ve had a career break during the last 5 years and are covered by a protected characteristic under the Equality Act 2010, we will extend the evidence window to take account of this. For example if you’ve been away from work for one year on maternity leave, you’ll be able to use evidence from the last six years to take account of this.
If you’ve had a career break to assume caring responsibilities in whatever form this takes – childcare, elderly care or illness – the evidence window will be extended to take account of this.
In all other circumstances, the usual five-year evidence window will apply. If you’re not sure, please contact us to check.
I work as a Consultant. How best can we prepare our responses re the long term outcomes and benefits of our assignments?
We appreciate the realities of our roles as people professionals working as consultants and/or on short-term contracts, and would encourage you to reflect on the following areas to help demonstrate the sustained value of your work:
- Initiatives you have led that demonstrate your thinking in the medium to long-term
- Agreed long-term milestones and your expectations of long-term success
- The expected scale & scope of the long-term value of this initiative
- What mechanisms you put in place so that the organisation could measure the impact of the initiative in the medium to long-term
- What evidence you are seeing/or have seen in the immediate term and how these are tracking against the long-term goals
- And any other evidence you have via your network or feedback from the client on how the initiative is doing now
What is the usual way to bring qualitative evidence to the Video Assessment? Is it as simple as reading out testimonials? Or perhaps providing written statements, a presentation, or even video?
It’s enough for you to talk us through the evidence you have of the impact of your work (either quantitative, or qualitative). Typically, candidates will come prepared with their notes to the professional discussion and use these as a prompt for the conversation.
You’re welcome to read a testimonial out to us, but unfortunately, we don’t allow for screen sharing or presentations in the assessment.
If you know you are not ready to do the assessment now. Would you recommend starting to collate examples and get them ready when you are ready to do the assessment (i.e. 1 to 2 years down the line)?
Absolutely! In the assessment, we will ask you for examples of people and change initiatives that you have led which demonstrate strategic thinking, stakeholder engagement and creating impact for your organisations. So it’s well worth evaluating what opportunities there are for you to gain new experience in these areas, or enhance your current experience.
You can also use the Pre-Assessment tool to help reflect more broadly on your experience against the membership standards as well as by accessing our learning content to help add to your CPD plan.
Working as part of large HR team, it is possible that some of my experience involves others impact as well as my own is this a disadvantage during the assessment?
Not at all - we understand that the nature of our work is collaborative and that by working as a part of a large HR team you gain valuable skills such as the opportunity to collaborate with others and lead sub-groups or specific projects within a wider initiative.
What we will focus on in the professional discussion is your specific role and contribution to this wider impact.
What is your advice for those that specialise in a certain field or very large companies? For example Resourcing & Onboarding or large companies (22k colleagues)?
You can volunteer and gain insight into large scale projects. However, it is difficult to directly "lead" and be "solely" responsible in that as it's large project teams / working groups. Do you consider this? Thank you.
Firstly, the membership standards (which the assessment is based on) contains core knowledge and behavioural standards which are equally applicable across specialist and generalist HR roles. So your assessor will flex the professional discussion with your background in mind.
If you are a specialist, then we’d also encourage you to reflect on your initiatives from a holistic perspective and think about the different people approaches you used to help elevate the impact of your new approach. So for example, a new reward approach that is integrated with succession planning, learning and development and performance management.
Similarly, your assessor will take into account the organisational context you are operating in, whether that is within a SME, or a large corporate.
