CIPD Student Stories: Katy Foster | CIPD Level 5 Review

Looking to make a career change after she had her son, Katy used her transferable sales skills to switch to an HR role and took on a CIPD Level 5 Diploma in People Management with us to develop further. Find out more about her story below. 

After 4 years studying French and Politics at the University of Leeds, I spent the best part of 10 years working in sales in the hotel industry. I then left the industry to have my son and had a bit of a crisis about what I wanted to do next!

I knew I wanted to go back to work but I didn't want the high-pressure role I'd had before (50-60 hour weeks and high targets) now that I had my little boy. 

I had been a manager many times and had learnt a fair bit about people management. I have always loved people and I believed that I had a number of transferrable skills to move from sales to HR, so I took a junior role as a stand-alone HR Officer in a Multi-Academy Trust of Schools and after 2 years I studied my CIPD Level 5 qualification with ICS Learn. 

Having already gained some working knowledge of HR it was great to study it in greater depth and it gave me a completely different perspective on people management and the role of HR in supporting and driving business growth. 

The course was easy to follow and the support from the tutors was great. I really struggled with my first assignment as I had been out of academia for so long and the referencing style was different. There was quite a bit of support on this though from both the tutors and online resources and with a bit of help I passed my first assignment the second time around. After that, I passed them all first time with the support of the tutors.  I loved incorporating what I’d learnt into my real-life role.

I'm now working at an HR consultancy that supports SMEs with bespoke HR support. We deliver advice on employment law as well as HR and so I have now enrolled on the HR Level 7 qualification to develop my knowledge.

The assignments are really practical as they are based on complex and nuanced real-life scenarios.  They have really challenged me to think of all the possible issues that may arise and think outside of the box on how to resolve potential challenges.

Inspired by Katy's story? Develop your HR career with a professional CIPD qualification that you can complete from home. Download your free CIPD course guide.