Aparna works for one of the Big Four accounting firms. She is responsible for establishing and rolling out virtual classrooms, and delivering new employee induction programs. She studied her CIPD Level 5 Certification in L&D with Acacia Learning by attending block weekend classes in London.

Aparna is pictured above celebrating her CIPD graduation with Julie Cook, Director at the CIPD’s London branch general annual meeting, May 2018.

Aparna has worked in L&D for 9+ years and had worked through all the segments of L&D which she’d learned from mentors and leaders. She says:

“I was in search of relevance and a standard against which I wanted to measure my knowledge and skills and learn industry best practices. CIPD ticked all the boxes gave me context, relevance, reference and helped me gain perspective.”

Read more from Aparna and hear how gaining her professional qualification has helped boost her career, confidence and work experience.

What was the best thing about the course? 

“You get access to loads of reference material and the classroom is a great opportunity to connect with like-minded L&D professionals. The course also introduced me to a lot of best practices from across many different organisations and industry sectors.”

Did you have a favourite module? 

“Yes, understanding the context of learning and development (5CLD). This module helped me to gain perspective and analyse different kinds of organisations and the role L&D plays in each of these. Analysing organisations using PSTEL and SWOT and recommending solutions definitely tests the depth of your L&D knowledge. I thoroughly enjoyed this module.”

How was your Acacia tutor and support throughout the course? 

“Margaret was fantastic. Very supportive, encouraging and motivating. She is so passionate about what she does and is truly an inspiration. I would definitely recommend Acacia because of the tutors, content structure and ease of getting things done.”

Has the CIPD course benefited your current role/career? 

“Gaining my CIPD certification has built my confidence and given me a standard against which I can measure my work.”

Have you applied your learning to your job role? 

“Absolutely yes. I have used the tools I learnt in the blended learning module in my current role. I’ve also used the concepts and survey reports when I pitched technology in learning and its benefits. It’s a big YES!!”