APC program structure

The APC builds the knowledge, skills and behaviours required of HR professionals to apply an advanced and strategic lens to HR management.

Flexible study options for professionals

Whether you decide to study independently or alongside your student cohort, AHRI will provide you with comprehensive learning and assessment materials and academic support to enable successful completion of your studies.

If you require assistance to choose the most suitable study mode based on your circumstances or learning needs, please contact AHRI Student Support or call 1300 811 880.

VIRTUAL WORKSHOP

Join facilitator-led group workshops to support your independent study and discuss learning and assessment outcomes with peers.

DISTANCE (INDEPENDENT)

Take responsibility for your own learning with online support from a dedicated Academic Coordinator and a week-by-week Study Guide.

Complete four learning units in 18 months (part-time)

Students will apply the ‘toolkit’ of HR competencies and behaviours learnt throughout the APC program, in both theoretical and applied work-based assessments, and reflections will be recorded in your learning journal.

All four units of the program must be completed within four years of commencement and AHRI recommends that students do not undertake more than one unit at a time.

This unit provides an overview of the HR profession, and examines management theory, historical practices and continuous research behind the competencies required of today’s HR professional. Participants will consider the value of strategic HR practices to organisational performance and how they are measured.

This unit will enable you to:

  • Practise as an HR professional from a sound base of management and HR theory;
  • Identify strategies and initiatives that can orient an organisation’s HR practice towards meeting current and future business challenges;
  • Draw on strategic management theories, frameworks and processes, and analyse the organisation’s strategic direction and HR strategy;
  • Design effective HR strategies and practices which assist the organisation in meeting its strategic objectives and that align with the culture of the organisation;
  • Understand the role of the HR professional and improve HR competencies by assessing current competency levels against the AHRI Model of Excellence;
  • Draw on a range of change management models to plan, implement and evaluate a change initiative within the organisation; and
  • Identify suitable HR key performance indicators, evaluation models and tools, and evaluate and report on the value of HR practice in the organisation.

Learning Outcomes

 

By completing this study unit, you will achieve the following learning outcomes:

  1. Apply contemporary human resource management strategies and practice to achieve organisational objectives
  2. Understand the role, core competencies and behaviours required of HR professionals and their impact on the organisation, and employ these competencies and behaviours through an understanding of the organisational context to achieve organisational objectives.

This unit of study requires approximately 128 hours study time (including assessment).

This unit explores the factors that influence the operating environment of an organisation and their impact on strategic planning and strategic objectives. It investigates the ways in which human resource management contributes to organisational strategy through understanding the organisational context and organisational objectives in order to develop and implement an HR strategy which supports achievement of organisational capability.

Participants explore how they can build a business case for a HR initiative as part of business strategy. The unit also examines the employment relations legislative framework in which Australian businesses operate.

This unit will enable you to:

  • Evaluate the strategic competitiveness of the business, drawing on your understanding of your organisation’s context including the industry, operating environment, market position, exposure to trends in the operating environment, and the business model;
  • Prepare a business case to support the contribution of HR to achieving the business strategy by analysing your organisation’s strategic objectives and developing appropriate HR strategies;
  • Identify and assess the effect of stakeholder interests on HR practices, engage stakeholders in HR activity and promote the value of the HR function to stakeholders; and
  • Articulate within the organisation the employment law and legal requirements with which the business must comply, and integrate these requirements into HR and organisational practice.

Learning Outcomes

 

By completing this study unit, you will achieve the following learning outcomes:

  1. Understand the impact of organisational context on the development and implementation of HR strategy in order to deliver organisational objectives;
  2. Contribute to a fair, safe, ethical and diverse workplace through the application of contemporary employment law and practices; and
  3. Establish and foster relationships and partnerships with key stakeholders to build organisational capability.

This unit of study requires approximately 128 hours study time (including assessment).

This unit addresses the HR competencies required for responding to challenges in workforce design, development and performance management to meet organisational objectives. The unit examines efficient processes for job analysis and design, attraction, recruitment, development, performance management, retention, and reward and remuneration strategies.

Participants will learn how to plan, implement and evaluate these strategies using appropriate HR management strategies and processes.

This unit will enable you to:

  • Contribute to workplace design and implementation processes and systems that will assist your organisation in meeting its strategic objectives through managing changing workplace needs and workforce structures attributes;
  • Analyse competencies, undertake job analysis, build job descriptions and person specifications and design jobs that meet the strategic business needs of your organisation;
  • Choose the most effective methods and models to address a competitive job market and lead your organisation in attracting, recruiting, selecting and retaining talent;
  • Analyse key performance management models and determine common advantages and disadvantages of these models;
  • Utilise and adapt a performance model suitable for your organisation’s purposes, that managers can use to communicate about and improve employee performance;
  • Identify problems and concerns that managers and employees may face in participating in performance management processes and provide strategies to address these problems and concerns;
  • Design and manage reward and remuneration strategies to motivate employees in meeting strategic objectives, and to partner with line managers in implementing these strategies; and
  • Examine types and applications of human resources information systems (HRIS) to understand and contribute to HRIS requirements for your organisation.

Learning Outcomes

 

By completing this study unit, you will achieve the following learning outcomes:

  1. Design and develop workforce planning strategies that facilitate a sustainable workplace and a capable workforce;
  2. Utilise workforce analytics to identify and evaluate strategic and operational workforce requirements;
  3. Apply human resources strategies to attract, develop and retain a capable workforce;
  4. Establish and implement performance and reward frameworks and systems that ensure a productive workforce; and
  5. Understand and anticipate the impact of social, technological, economic and demographic changes on an organisation.

This unit of study requires approximately 128 hours study time (including assessment).

This unit is designed to consolidate learning from Units 1, 2 and 3 of the AHRI Practising Certification Program. It focuses on the demonstration and application of the AHRI Model of Excellence competencies and leadership behaviours that effective HR professionals require to:

  • Apply HR leadership and insight to solve real business problems through HR strategy;
  • Foster a productive and sustainable workplace culture; and
  • Drive organisational objectives.

Learning Outcomes

By completing this study unit, you will achieve the following learning outcomes:

  1. Apply HR skills, knowledge, practices and behaviours in the context of the organisation;
  2. Deliver a HR strategy / initiative within an organisational setting that enhances organisational capability; and
  3. Reflect and evaluate on current capability and identify future professional development needs.

Note: Participants must successfully complete Units 1, 2 and 3 in order to undertake the final capstone unit.

In Unit 4 you will plan and complete a work-based project in which you will implement an organisational capability initiative that solves real business problems. For participants who are employed during their studies, their workplace environment will be the setting in which their learning and HR competencies are applied and reflected upon. 

This unit of study requires approximately 128 hours study time (including assessment), including 80 hours of self-directed on-the-job project work (approx. three hours per week, across two trimesters total of 30 weeks).

As your project sponsor plays an important role, we have available the unit 4 APC Program Sponsor Guide to download.

How AHRI is supporting your learning:

AHRI has committed to subsidising APC enrolment fees in 2024 to encourage and support the professionalisation of the HR industry. This is a limited offer, so make sure you make the most of it.

Plan your schedule of study

The APC Program is offered in a trimester format over 18 months on a part-time basis. It is recommended students undertake no more than one unit at a time, and all four units of the program must be completed within four years of commencement.

UNITS 1, 2 & 3

Trimester

Enrolments close

Trimester start

Trimester ends

1

 11 Dec 2023

11/12/23

8 Jan 2024

8/1/24

1 Apr 2024

1/4/24

2

8 Apr 2024

8/4/24

13 May 2024

13/5/24

29 Jul 2024

29/7/24

3

28 Aug 2024

28/8/24

9 Sep 2024

9/4/24

16 Dec 2024

16/12/24

UNIT 4

Trimester

Enrolments close

Trimester start

Trimester ends

1

 11 Dec 2023

11/12/23

8 Jan 2024

8/1/24

5 Aug 2024

5/8/24

2

8 Apr 2024

8/4/24

13 May 2024

13/5/24

2 Dec 2024

2/12/24

3

28 Aug 2024

28/8/24

9 Sep 2024

9/4/24

21 Apr 2025

21/4/25

Note: Workshop dates are confirmed one week prior to course commencement.

Fast track your Certification journey

AHRI recognises the skills and knowledge you have gained through formal study, life/work experience and non-accredited training.

Through our Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) and Credit Transfer (CT) pathways, you can be awarded credit towards the outcomes of the APC program to help you fast track your studies.

"I hold AHRI in high esteem and found the certification program to be an excellent 'finishing school'. My peers and I are proud to be certified and feel the accreditation will be a valuable differentiator for future jobs."

Matteo Barbarioll CPHR, Senior HR Business Partner, Lander & Rogers

“I found the certification program gave me skills to provide a stronger evidence base for decision making and contemporary thinking across the HR lifecycle. The work-based project was a highlight and developed my skills around influencing and project management.”

Jade Cordell CPHR, HR Business Partner, National Indigenous Australians Agency.