The IPD has defended its decision to refuse an HR professional with 30
years’ experience admittance to the institute unless he takes a qualification
or goes through a professional assessment.
Dave Morgan, employee relations manager at Suffolk County Council, wrote to
Personnel Today to express his "annoyance and disgust" after being
told by the institute that he could not renew his lapsed membership
automatically.
He accused director-general Geoff Armstrong of running a
"shambles".
But the IPD defended its position saying that Morgan, who joined the IPD’s
predecessor, the IPM in the 1970s has never been a member of the IPD because he
failed to convert his membership to the institute when it was formed in 1994.
Because he has let his IPM membership lapse it has not converted
automatically. As a non-member he has to apply to join like anyone else. Since
1994 the routes for joining have been either through professional assessment,
NVQs, the institute’s exams or the accreditation of a non-related
qualification.
IPD spokesman Nick Isles denied that the entrance requirements are weighted
against people who have been in the profession for a long time.
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"That is the point of having a number of ways in," he said.
"We are not asking people with a lot of experience to take exams but they
have got to show somehow that they meet the required standards or what’s the
point of having a professional body?"
Morgan, has decided not to take the matter further as he is about to retire.
