How long is the Diploma in Recruitment & Selection?

Nine to twelve months depending on pace. The Diploma in Recruitment & Selection runs part-time so working applicants can complete it alongside a current UK role.

Can the Diploma in Recruitment & Selection be studied online?

Yes. The Diploma in Recruitment & Selection is delivered on-campus in London, fully online and by distance learning, against the same assessment schedule.

Is the Diploma in Recruitment & Selection recognised by UK employers?

The Diploma in Recruitment & Selection is aligned with CIPD Associate Diploma in People Practice and REC standards, providing a recognised reference for UK employers and progression to LSIBM Advanced Diploma routes.

What are the entry requirements for the Diploma in Recruitment & Selection?

A relevant Certificate (Level 3) or two years of professional experience, GCSE English and Maths at 4/C and IELTS 5.5 for non-native speakers meets the baseline for the Diploma in Recruitment & Selection.

What does the Diploma in Recruitment & Selection cost?

Tuition varies by mode and cohort. Contact LSIBM admissions for the current fee schedule and instalment plans for the Diploma in Recruitment & Selection.

Diploma in Recruitment & Selection | LSIBM London | Harold International College of London

Course Overview

The Diploma in Recruitment & Selection at the London School of International Business and Management (LSIBM) is a practitioner-focused Diploma for working recruiters and in-house talent partners stepping into senior consultant, TA specialist and 360-desk roles. Sitting in the Human Resources & Leadership faculty, this nine to twelve months programme covers executive sourcing, competency-based interviewing, workforce planning, employer-brand basics and the CIPD-aligned ER standards a UK talent-acquisition professional is expected to work to. The CIPD Profession Map Associate level and REC recruitment standards provide the practitioner competency framework, with the Home Office right-to-work regime and the Equality Act 2010 as live references.

Over nine to twelve months you will study executive search techniques, structured interviewing at scale, offer negotiation and workforce planning for a mid-size UK employer. Cohorts include a supervised end-to-end campaign for a live vacancy provided by a working UK employer partner. The Diploma in Recruitment & Selection is delivered on-campus in central London, fully online, or by distance learning. Graduates should leave able to run a full desk in a UK agency or an in-house talent team. Cohorts include a fortnightly tutor clinic, a supervised progress log, and structured practitioner exposure — a Big-Four adviser, a CIM Fellow, a CIPD-chartered HR director — so students meet UK professional expectations well before graduation and can defend a practitioner brief in front of a working panel. The programme intentionally overlaps with the assessment standards used by UK professional bodies at the practitioner tier so that students who choose to sit the corresponding professional-body exam meet a familiar structure and vocabulary. Every closing portfolio piece is written to a standard a working UK practitioner would recognise, and students who complete the Diploma articulate directly onto the LSIBM Advanced Diploma with confirmed credit transfer for the shared units. Tutor visibility is a deliberate cornerstone of the Diploma tier — every student has a named tutor for the duration of the programme and a scheduled fortnightly one-to-one review that follows the same rubric a UK employer uses for a probation-period conversation.

Key Features

Curriculum aligned with CIPD Associate Diploma in People Practice and REC standards.
Three study modes — central London campus, fully online, or distance learning.
Executive-sourcing module — Boolean search, LinkedIn Recruiter, referral generation at senior level.
Workforce-planning module using a mid-market UK case study.
Assessment by three assignments and a live-campaign portfolio, not a single closed exam.
Structured route toward CIPD Associate Diploma in People Practice.
Practitioner clinic each cohort with a working senior UK recruiter or HRBP.
Progression route to the LSIBM Advanced Diploma in Recruitment Strategy.

What You Will Learn

The Diploma builds the practitioner-level toolkit of a UK recruiter — the professional trusted to run a full desk, close senior hires and coach hiring managers.

Executive sourcing — Boolean search, LinkedIn Recruiter techniques and referral generation.
Competency-based interviewing to a structured scorecard for reliability.
Workforce planning — headcount modelling for a mid-market UK employer.
Employer-brand basics — EVP articulation, careers-site copy and Glassdoor management.
Offer negotiation and complex counter-offer handling in UK salary bands.
Diversity, equity and inclusion strategy under the Equality Act 2010.
Onboarding, probation-period support and first-90-days design.
Data-informed recruiting — time-to-fill, cost-per-hire, source-of-hire metrics.
Right-to-work checks at practitioner level, including sponsor-licence context.
Ethical practice under the CIPD Code of Conduct and REC standards.
Agency management and RPO models for a UK in-house TA team.

Who This Course Is For

Working UK recruiters progressing to senior consultant or full-desk roles.
In-house TA coordinators promoted to talent-acquisition partner.
HR generalists formalising a recruitment specialism.
Career changers moving from sales into a UK recruiter role.
International recruiters preparing for practitioner UK roles.

Career Pathways

The Diploma supports practitioner-level UK recruitment roles across agency, in-house and RPO settings. Typical destinations include:

Senior Recruitment Consultant
Talent Acquisition Partner (UK plc)
Executive Search Researcher
Recruitment Team Leader
Talent Acquisition Specialist (technology or life sciences)
RPO Delivery Manager
Internal Mobility Partner

The Diploma in Recruitment & Selection sits onto the LSIBM Advanced Diploma in Recruitment Strategy and provides an on-ramp toward the CIPD Associate Diploma in People Practice for those pursuing chartered CIPD status. LSIBM Diploma graduates typically progress to an Advanced Diploma with LSIBM the following intake and can access one-to-one professional-body application coaching in the closing term.

Entry Requirements

A relevant Certificate (Level 3) or equivalent — mature applicants with two years of professional experience are welcomed on a portfolio route.
GCSE English Language at grade 4/C and Mathematics at grade 4/C (or international equivalent).
IELTS 5.5 overall (no band below 5.0) for non-native English speakers.
A short statement of intent and one academic or professional reference.

Why Study at LSIBM

The London School of International Business and Management (LSIBM) is a specialist business-education provider based in central London and part of Harold International College. We teach in small cohorts so every student is visible to their tutor, run a single intake schedule that students can rely on, and partner with UK professional bodies — CMI, CIM, CIPD, ACCA, CIMA, CFA UK, CIPS and IOE&IT — so qualifications carry weight with employers.

London puts the City, Canary Wharf, Whitehall, Companies House, the FCA, the Bank of England and the West End within a short tube ride of every classroom. Diploma cohorts run structured cohort clinics with working practitioners — a Big-Four tax adviser, a CIM Fellow in marketing, a CIPD-chartered HR director — so students meet professional expectations well before graduation.

Apply for the Diploma in Recruitment & Selection

Take the practitioner step with the Diploma in Recruitment & Selection. Click Enrol Now and our admissions team will respond within one working day with intake dates, credit-transfer guidance and current fee schedule. Diploma students are eligible for direct progression to LSIBM's Advanced Diploma or Higher Diploma routes on completion.