Graduate Diploma of Management (Learning)

The Graduate Diploma of Management (Learning) is a two-year course for people who want to lead learning and development inside organisations. It sits at graduate diploma level on the Australian Qualifications Framework, so it comes after a bachelor degree or equivalent experience. You study how adults learn, how to design and run training programs, how to assess whether learning actually changed anything, and how to manage a learning function, its budget, its staff and its compliance obligations. Because the subject area is curriculum and instruction, a good part of the work is practical: writing session plans, building assessment tools, mapping units to competency standards, and reviewing programs that already exist.

How the course is structured

Australian graduate diplomas are usually made up of units of study, each worth a set number of credit points. At this level you would typically complete eight to ten units over two years, delivered across semesters or trimesters. Some providers build in a capstone unit in the final stage, where you take a real learning problem from a workplace and work it through from needs analysis to evaluation. Where the qualification includes work-integrated learning, it usually appears as a placement or a supervised project unit, and you would confirm the exact arrangement with the college before enrolling. Credit for prior study or relevant work experience is assessed unit by unit, and you should ask the college directly about recognition of prior learning.

What you actually learn

Expect to spend time on learning theory and how it applies to adults in workplaces, instructional design, assessment and moderation, and the regulatory side of training in Australia. You cover managing teams, budgets and stakeholder relationships, and you look at how to use data to judge whether a program is worth keeping. Skills you build include writing clear learning outcomes, choosing delivery methods that suit the audience, running validation sessions with other assessors, and presenting a business case for training investment to senior managers. Group work and written assignments are common, and you will do a fair amount of independent reading and research.

Who it suits

This course fits trainers, assessors, HR officers, team leaders and workplace supervisors who already have some experience and want to move into a learning and development management role. It also suits people changing careers into corporate training, vocational education or organisational development. If you are an international student, you can work up to 48 hours per fortnight while your course is in session, and the Temporary Graduate visa (subclass 485) post-study work stream may be available after you finish, depending on your circumstances. English requirements are set out by the college and by the Department of Home Affairs for the visa itself. Tuition and intake details are published on the CRICOS register under course code 110416E, and you should confirm current fees, entry requirements and unit lists on the official page before you apply.

• Learning and development manager
• Training coordinator or training manager
• Instructional designer
• Vocational education trainer and assessor
• Organisational development officer
• Human resources officer with a training focus
• Compliance and quality officer in a registered training organisation
• Workplace trainer or team leader in government, health, mining, retail or community services

Graduates work across Australian industries that run their own training: vocational education and training providers, government agencies, hospitals and aged care groups, mining and construction companies, retail chains and not-for-profit organisations.