Sponsoring a manager, or a whole team

Who you are dealing with

Three parties, and which one signs what

This site is published by LearnLoom Consultants, a Hong Kong consultancy that introduces learners and employers to London School of Planning and Management (LSPM) as its agent, on an independent basis. LSPM is the OTHM and Qualifi approved centre: it contracts with you or your learner, invoices, teaches, marks and registers the learner with the awarding body. A sponsoring employer's contract is with LSPM, never with LearnLoom Consultants; we are not a party to it and take no payment from you. We advise, help you shortlist and introduce you to LSPM's admissions team; LSPM pays us a fee on enrolment, and your fees are LSPM's published fees whether you come through us or not. Anything below about invoicing, reporting or cohorts describes LSPM's practice as it has been described to us. Get it in writing from LSPM before you commit a budget.

What you are buying

A regulated qualification, delivered around the job

Each diploma on this site is an Ofqual-regulated Level 7 qualification awarded by OTHM or Qualifi. LSPM teaches it, sets and marks the assignments and manages the learner's registration with the awarding body. Learners study alongside work over LSPM's typical 9 months (standard) or 6 months (fast track), and the specifications require every assignment to be an applied piece of work on a real organisation, which for a sponsored learner is normally yours.

That last point is the practical return. Six to ten pieces of postgraduate-level analysis, on your strategy, your people, your finances or your operations, produced by someone who already knows the business. Sponsors who frame the assignments with the learner at the outset get the most from this.

Money

Invoicing and payment

LSPM has told us it works with sponsors in the following way. Each point is a question to put to LSPM's admissions team, and we will put them for you if you prefer.

• LSPM invoices your organisation directly, per learner or per cohort, and can quote a purchase order number if your process requires one.
• Fees are quoted by LSPM in writing before enrolment. Nothing appears on this site until LSPM has published its fees, and we never quote a figure that LSPM has not put in writing.
• LSPM offers instalment schedules to sponsors as well as individuals; ask for the schedule and the point at which the learner is registered with the awarding body.
• Ask LSPM to itemise awarding body registration and certification fees so that you can see exactly what is being paid for.
• If a learner leaves your employment mid-programme, the enrolment is theirs and continues with LSPM; the balance of fees is a matter for your agreement with them. Many sponsors use a tapered repayment clause, which is your document, not LSPM's or ours.

Visibility

Progress reporting, with consent

The learner's assessment record belongs to the learner, and data protection law means LSPM can share it with you only with their explicit consent. In practice almost every sponsored learner gives it, and LSPM asks for it at enrolment so that there is no awkwardness later. Ask LSPM to confirm what a sponsor report contains and how often it is sent; in our experience of sponsored learners it covers:

• Attendance at live sessions.
• Submission dates against the schedule, and whether each unit has been passed, referred or is awaiting a result.
• A short tutor note on engagement, where the learner agrees.

Assignments themselves and detailed tutor feedback are not shared unless the learner chooses to share them. Where an assignment is about your organisation, the learner will normally want to show you anyway. We receive none of this information; reporting runs between LSPM and you.

Groups

Closed cohorts

From 6 learners LSPM will consider a closed cohort for one organisation: a shared start date, sessions timed to your working pattern, a named tutor as your point of contact, and assignment briefs framed around your own strategic priorities within the awarding body's assessment criteria. Whether a blended arrangement with some sessions at your premises is possible depends on where you are and on LSPM's capacity in the intake, so treat it as a request rather than a menu item. Cohorts of mixed seniority work well provided everyone meets the entry requirements; the diplomas assume management experience and are not suitable for staff who have not yet led people.

My part is to gather your requirements once, put them to LSPM, and bring back a written proposal you can take to your own approvals process.

Choice

Choosing programmes for a team

Start from the roles, not the catalogue. If you are developing a leadership pipeline across functions, one general management diploma for the whole cohort keeps the group coherent; the OTHM Strategic Management and Leadership diploma is the one sponsors we have advised most often choose, because its two optional units let individuals lean towards finance, operations, change, governance, innovation or marketing while the cohort shares four common units. If you are developing functional heads, a specialist diploma for each will serve them better than a general one, and cohorts can mix programmes if LSPM's timetable allows.

Two of the diplomas carry 60 credits rather than 120 and are half the commitment; they suit a shorter, focused intervention rather than a route to a master's. The full catalogue by sector marks them.

If a master's is part of the plan for any learner, budget the university's top-up stage separately and read how the pathway works before you promise it. LSPM controls the diploma stage; the university controls the rest; nobody on this side of the arrangement can promise the second stage.

Testimonial slot

Quotation from a sponsoring HR or learning director to be supplied, with written consent, before this slot is published.