Company Profile

Founded by Mark Orpen, Glenda Webster and Dion McConnel in 1999, The Institute of People Development (IPD) continues to enable the enablers of South Africa’s skills development strategy and the transformation of education and training.  Over the past two decades, IPD has become the preferred people development partner to many state-owned and private enterprises in Southern Africa.

The Institute of People Development (IPD) started by providing accredited Skills Development Facilitator (SDF) training and soon expanded its offerings to include accredited National Certificate & National Diploma: OD-ETD Practices qualifications and skills programmes at NQF 4 and 5.  In 2005, the Higher Certificate: OD-ETD Practices NQF 6 was added and IPD instituted a policy of Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) applicable to all whole qualifications; thanks to the expertise and drive from Daryl McLean, Vanessa Winter, Jane Vaughton, Matthew Rademan, Dr Miemsie de Jager and others.

Between 2011 and 2017, Gizelle McIntyre joined IPD as GM.  From 2013, IPD added Learning and Development Consulting, hosting of ReCr8 seminars as continuous professional development (CPD) and later accreditation for NQF Level 4 and Level 5 Certificate: Generic Management, also offered through Recognition of Prior Learning and/or various skills programmes.

In 2019, IPD conceptualised and introduced its 4HR Masterclass directed at organisations to make a just socio-technical transition into the fourth industrial revolution; to maintain relevance and leadership in the human resource management and skills development sectors.

CoVid19 and the National lockdown 2020 enforced social distancing; mask wearing, fear and uncertainty resulting in a global economic slowdown; and hope for a slow recovery at best.  To continue responding to its valued learners and clients’ evolving needs meant IPD had to migrate all its accredited programmes online with service and support staff working remotely and/or from home.  So with exceptional agility IPD quickly moved its entire business into ‘the cloud’ by end 2021; providing online lectures, workflow, online tutorial support sessions, all backed by a strong technology infrastructure to meet its accreditation requirements with the ETDPSETA and SERVICES SETA.  

IPD is a micro-exempt BBBEE level 4 contributor and attributes its’ ongoing success to agility and commitment to quality training and development, a long standing and reliable brand, sound values and professional service.

IPD is poised to evolve as a leading multi-purpose provider of quality competitive accredited online qualifications and skills programmes in Southern Africa.