We use cookies to personalise content and ads, to provide social media features and to analyse our traffic.
We also share information about your use of our site with our social media,
advertising and analytics partners who may combine it with other information that you’ve provided to them or that they’ve collected from your use of their services.
Leadership and Management
Last Reviewed: 20 October 2026 - 2 min read
If you’re serious about developing your career in leadership and management or developing coaching and mentoring skills to help support your team grow, you’ve probably started considering qualifications you could take to boost your performance. You may be considering Chartered Management Institute (CMI) qualifications as one option.
CMI qualifications are a really effective way to gain the essential theoretical knowledge and practical skills that you’ll need for a successful career in management and leadership, as well as professional coaching. As one of the ‘gold standard’ qualifications in the industry, they can help to both improve your performance at work and help your overall career development.
But how long do they actually take to complete? Here’s what you need to know.
Some types of qualifications will take longer to complete than others. There are three lengths of CMI qualifications:
The level you study at can also influence how long it takes to complete your course. For example, a Level 3 qualification focuses on people who are developing their management, leadership, coaching or mentoring skills, while higher-level qualifications like Level 5 or 7 explore these areas in greater depth and may require you to apply your learning to more complex workplace situations.
The right level will depend on your experience, your current role and what you want to achieve, so it’s worth looking beyond the estimated completion time when choosing your qualification.
CMI Awards are a shorter, more focused level of qualification that you can take. They cover one topic in detail and take around 1 to 3 months to complete.
A Certificate is the next step up. It takes around 3 to 6 months to complete and covers a few topics related to the subject in detail. It is a good way to get a broad grounding in a topic in a relatively short period. Many businesses will expect candidates for top roles to have a CMI certificate as a bare minimum.
A Diploma is the most comprehensive qualification that you’ll be able to take at each level. It can take you anywhere from 6 months to 12 months to complete. It’s designed to give you the essential information that you’ll need to progress in your career, and it will cover more units than a certificate, usually in more detail.
How long it takes you to finish your qualification will obviously vary, depending on the exact type of qualification you choose to take. Usually, qualifications that cover more information will take longer to complete. For example, you’ll be able to complete an award relatively quickly because it only covers one topic, whilst a certificate or diploma will take slightly longer. After all, they cover several.
Life has a habit of getting in the way of things that you’re trying to focus on.
Unless you’re able to dedicate your entire waking hours to study, you’re likely to find that you’re going to need to balance existing commitments like childcare or work with the demands of study.
And that can affect how long it takes you to complete a qualification.
Study takes time and effort, and you’ll only really be successful if you give it the time that it deserves. Basically, the more time you have to devote to a CMI qualification, the faster you’ll be able to complete it!
Full-time work and family commitments shouldn’t put you off taking a CMI Leadership and Management qualification or CMI Coaching and Mentoring qualification, though. With a little bit of intelligent thinking and crafty scheduling, you’ll be able to make your existing commitments fit around your study.
Many providers, for instance, have designed their courses to do just this.
Our CMI qualifications, for example, can be completed 100% online and whenever you want – there are no deadlines aside from the end of your access to the course. You can study at your own pace!
How fast you learn will also affect how long it takes you to complete our CMI course.
That’s because learning is an intensely personal process. The speed at which you learn differs for everyone and is dependent on a whole range of factors, such as the type of information that you’re learning and how you’re learning it.
You can’t really predict how long it might take you to learn a particular skill or piece of information. You can only base it on how you’ve learned new knowledge and skills in the past.
That means the unique way you learn affects how fast you learn overall.
One of the biggest things that influences how long it will take you to complete a CMI qualification is the format of the course that you’re studying.
Usually, You have two choices for how to study a qualification: you can do it in person at a school or college, or you can do it by distance learning, online. Whether you choose to study in a classroom or remotely will have a direct impact on how long your CMI qualification will take to complete.
If you’re studying the course in a physical classroom, it’s likely that the course will have a specific timeframe that you’ll need to complete it within. This can be a positive or a negative, depending on how easy you find it to study.
Our 100% online CMI courses let you complete your course as quickly or slowly as you choose within the course access period, which we calculate generously to give you plenty of time to learn at your own pace and take breaks when you need them.
Your current management experience or coaching and mentoring knowledge will also play some part in how easy you find it to complete a CMI qualification, and thus, how long you it takes to complete it, too.
If you’ve already managed a team, supported colleagues through development conversations or used coaching techniques at work, some of the concepts you study may already feel familiar. That doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll fly through the qualification, but you may find it easier to connect the theory to situations you’ve experienced yourself.
Becoming a successful manager or first line manager is a tough but very rewarding journey. It doesn’t matter if it takes you a little longer to get there – every small step that you make is ultimately getting you closer to your goals.
Progress your management and leadership career today by getting your free CMI course guide.
Share this post