Associate Member

For people professionals whose work is operational with some complexity: you’re beginning to contribute your thinking to people issues and solutions

Show you have business impact

Associate Membership demonstrates you have the people skills to deliver on today’s business needs. You’re sought-after for your experience, trusted for your up-to-date knowledge, and respected for your professional commitment to good practice.

Your Assoc CIPD designation helps to raise your profile within the people profession and can open the door to new job opportunities. It establishes your credibility and knowledge as a professional.

Working at Associate Member grade means you’re delivering an operational impact with increasing complexity. You’re using your knowledge to address and react to business needs, and you actively influence the day-to-day people approach in your organisation.

This grade could be for you if…

  • you have experience working at Associate Member level for a minimum of one year within the last five years
  • you’re delivering ‘hands-on’ operational work with some complexity that supports wider business needs
  • you’re contributing to the thinking and development of people solutions for your organisation
  • you’re using your experience and expertise to implement HR and L&D solutions such as people projects, or advising on practice and policy
  • you’re collaborating with, and influencing, immediate stakeholders such as professional colleagues or customers
  • you’re using evidence and information from different sources to inform your decisions and actions
  • you’re building an understanding of your organisation and the complexity of its people issues
  • you’re using your knowledge of people practices to evaluate how your work impacts people and the organisation

When you’re an Associate Member, you can use the designation Assoc CIPD after your name.

The Associate Member grade is aligned with the corresponding level in the Profession Map. If you are interested in becoming an Associate Member via Experience Assessment, use the membership standards to determine if this is the right membership grade for you.

What people say about being an Associate Member

Dipesh Mistry

The CIPD has completely transformed my career and it's helped to get me to where I am now as an eLearning manager.

Dipesh Mistry

Assoc CIPD, eLearning Manager

Rebecca Watts

For me being recognised as a member of the CIPD gives me credibility. It reassures the Exec team and the board that I know what I am doing.

Rebecca Watts, Assoc CIPD

HR and L&D Project Manager for Health Education England


What's in it for you?

Becoming a member means immediate access to a range of benefits. Look at some of our most popular benefits below, or go to our member benefits page to see the full range.

How to become an Associate Member

There are two ways:

What’s the best route for you?

Look at a comparison of our routes into membership to find the best one for you. If you’re already a member, check out options for upgrading your membership.

If you were previously in membership, find out how to come back to ensure your expertise is professionally recognised and trusted.

The total cost of membership is dependent on whether you are becoming a member for the first time, renewing your membership, re-joining, or upgrading to a different grade of membership or coming into membership via the Experience Assessment route.

Associate Member fee for up to 12 months* (from 1 July 2021 to 30 June 2022): £163.

You can pay by card or through direct debit instalments, and you’ll need to renew your membership annually on 1 July. We’ll send you renewal information well before the due date to remind you how much is due.

Fees for our routes to becoming an Associate Member:

Experience Assessment route Fee
One-off assessment fee £1,996
Joining fee £40
12-month Associate Member fee* £163
Total £2,199

The assessment fee is non-refundable.

Study a qualification route Fee
Qualification fee Set by individual study centres
Joining fee £40
12-month Student Member fee* £98
Total Qualification fee and £138

Once you finish your qualification, you’ll start paying the Associate Member fee at your next renewal on 1 July.

If you’ve already finished a CIPD accredited qualification, call us +44 (0)20 8612 6208 to find out whether you can become an Associate Member.

Re-joining Fee
Re-joining fee £40
12-month Associate Member fee* £163
Total £203

*Depending on when you join in the year, we offer different membership fee options.

Card payments

Fees are presented in Sterling, and card payments will be charged the exchange rate of your financial services provider.

Eurozone Direct Debit

You can set up a SEPA (Single Euro Payments Area) Direct Debit to pay in euros. Please complete our SEPA Direct Debit instruction form and send it with your membership application form.

Direct debit payment amounts are based on our current exchange rate €1.15 = £1 (rate is reviewed quarterly).

Not sure if Associate Member is right for you?

Chartered Member

For people professionals who work strategically and operationally with some complexity. You’re actively driving and managing change to meet your organisation’s needs

Read more

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Ask for advice about becoming an Associate Member

Call +353 1 513 6796 *

Or

Call +353 1 513 6796 * Contact us

* Calls are routed through to the UK

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