Individuals in the role of the HR Consultant will use their HR expertise to provide and lead the delivery of HR solutions to business challenges, together with tailored advice to the business in a number of HR areas, typically to mid-level and senior managers.

They could be in a generalist role, where they provide support across a range of HR areas – likely to be the Core HR option; or a specialist role, where they focus on and have in-depth expertise in a specific area of HR – likely to be Resourcing, Total Reward, Organisation Development, or HR Operations. Whichever of these is chosen, they will have a good grounding across the whole range of HR disciplines as this is contained in both of the qualification options included in this standard. They will often be required to make decisions and recommendations on what the business can/should do in a specific situation.

A HR Consultant is also tasked with influencing managers to change their thinking as well as bringing best practice into the organisation. They are also likely to lead the people related elements of business or HR projects. Whatever their role, a HR Consultant will need to link the work they do to the context and priorities of the business. In a larger organisation, they may be one of a team supporting the business and they may also have responsibility for managing people.

**Please note that this standard changed funding band to Band 10 (£7,000) on October 4th 2019**

Gateway Requirements

• Project Synopsis

End-Point Assessment Components

• Consultative Project
• Professional Discussion

Consultative Project

The Consultative Project will be a real example of work done by the apprentices in their role that will be completed after the Gateway, taking a maximum of three months. The Project will require the apprentice to describe how they have applied their knowledge and HR related skills to deliver the services required by the role as described in the Standard. It should describe a situation where the apprentice has successfully worked with a customer (probably an internal one) to deliver a specific piece(s) of HR advice or provide an HR solution(s) for them. The content of the 5000-word project should include the project objectives, the scope of the work, a description of the situation/problem/business need, the methodology used,  information gathered, any conclusions and recommendations and finally what the implementation plan was.

Professional Discussion

The Professional Discussion will be conducted after the Independent End-Point Assessor has reviewed and marked the Consultative Project. It will focus on the skills and behaviours specified in apprenticeship standard, together with any knowledge and skills components that were not previously covered in the Consultative Project. Each of the end-point assessment components are weighted 50% each with Pass/Distinction grading the achievable results.

More Information

If you would like to learn more about the HR Consultant/Partner apprenticeship standard, check out our factsheets page or alternatively you can find more information via the Institute for Apprenticeships website.