The recruitment industry has set up its own Institute in a bid to boost standards of professionalism in the sector and offer members a range of personal development options.
The Manchester-based Institute of Recruiters, which was launched yesterday, joins an increasingly crowded marketplace of organisations providing interested parties with education and training possibilities.
The Recruitment and Employment Confederation already delivers education and training as part of its services, while the Association of Professional Staffing Companies launched an online assessment toolkit and qualification earlier this year.
While Azmat Mohammed, the IoR’s director of ICT and operations acknowledged that there could be “some cross over” between it and other industry bodies, he told the Recruiter magazine that the new organisation would “increase membership for all incumbents in this space because they will reinvent themselves and innovate. We’re not taking their market share. We are growing this space”.
The IoR is pitching itself at anyone who works in recruitment, whether in an agency, in-house corporate resourcing or HR setting. The organisation will offer transferable university-level qualifications and is currently working with partners to develop a rotation placement programme for trainees in all three professional areas. Each individual placement will take between two and four weeks, meaning that the entire rotation could last up to three months in total.
At the same time, the IoR is also developing a Professional IoR Certified Apprenticeship scheme to support on-the-job training in each of the core professional areas named – HR manager, corporate resourcing manager and resourcing partner or agency consultant.
A further aim is to provide 69 professional development and peer networking events, including workshops, each year. Members will also have access to everything from free software and online membership forums to best practice guidance and advice. A final goal is to become the voice of the industry both in the UK and abroad.
