Awarding Body Pros and Cons

History and description

Advantages

Disadvantages

ILM

Institute of Leadership and Management

• Formed in 2001 through the merger of ISM and NEBS now part of City & Guilds.
• Historical focus on team leader and first line, now good offerings at Level 7 as well.
• Claims to be Europe's largest management awarding body for leadership and management.
• About 30,000 members.

• Flexibility: smaller units give you more granular flexibility in building your programme.
• Membership: gives you access to wide range of on-line learning and career development resources
• Strong presence in public sector, emergency services etc
• Good for organisations with large front line teams.

• Still regarded by some as "supervisory" even though this is no longer the case.
• Requires slightly more taught days due to the way their syllabus is structured so ILM programmes cost slightly more.
• Sometimes a slight challenge to programme taught days from multiple smaller units.

Edexcel (BTEC)

• Now a brand within Edexcel: itself formed in 1996 merging BTEC with University of London Examinations. Edexcel owned by Pearson.
• Claims to be UK's largest overall awarding body.
• No membership.

• The most flexible of the three in terms of customisation.
  
• Lowest registration fees - from 20 to 45% lower per delegate than the other two which are similar to each other.
• Connects on to Chartered Manager with CMI for those who wish.
• Good all round choice.

• Brand reputation not always good - ref GCSEs etc.
• Not a membership organisation so no specific learning support resources for managers on the programmes.

CMI

Chartered Management Institute

• Originally set up in 1950s as British Institute of Management to raise and maintain management standards.
• Granted charter status in 2002.
• Is UK's only chartered professional body for management.
• About 70,000 members.
• Grants "Chartered Manager" status to qualifying applicants.

• Has strong "management" brand.
• Membership organisation - access to wide range of on-line learning resources, career development, networking etc.
• Stronger presence in private sector.
• Good for organisations with less emphasis on front line workforce.

• Less flexible in terms of choice at Diploma level.
• Probably the most demanding courses.
• A bit more academic than the other two.