Institute of Risk Management · RQF Level 5
IRM's Level 5 International Certificate in Enterprise Risk Management
You don’t just earn this. You learn to use it, one-to-one, on your own real work.
- LevelRQF Level 5
- Total credits36
- Guided learning60 hours
- Units in this qualification12
Awarded by Institute of Risk Management · on the Ofqual register
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See how this course maps onto your role
Ten quick questions, one per Future Fluency, asked against this qualification rather than a generic one.
About 5 minutes · No card · Nothing to commit to
What you’ll learn
What each unit actually teaches you to do
The International Certificate in Enterprise Risk Management is the ideal qualification for anyone looking for a solid foundation in the theory and practice of effective risk management. There’s never been a better time to get qualified in risk management, help organisations with the economic recovery post-Covid-19 and increase your earning potential and career prospects.
These are the units Institute of Risk Management registers against this qualification. It is a catalogue, not a syllabus. Which of them you take depends on the combination the qualification requires, and that is set by the awarding body rather than by us. Every unit here is regulated, and every one you earn is yours to keep.
Approaches to risk managementReal unit · Institute of Risk Management
What you'll be able to do
- Examine the purpose and approach to managing risk from an individual's perspective in the banking field
- Examine the purpose and approach to managing risk from an individual's perspective in the insurance field
- Examine the purpose and approach to managing risk from an individual's perspective in the Information Technology field
- Examine the purpose and approach to managing risk from an individual's perspective in the Health and Safety field
- Examine the purpose and approach to managing risk from an individual's perspective in projects, programmes and portfolios field
- Examine the purpose and approach to managing risk from an individual's perspective in the supply chain field
- Examine the purpose and approach to managing risk from an individual's perspective in the legal field
Corporate governance and risk assuranceReal unit · Institute of Risk Management
What you'll be able to do
- Examine different corporate governance models of organisations
- Understand the impact that board structures have on organisations' approaches to risk management
- Examine the regulatory influences on risk management of organisations
- Examine the roles and responsibilities of the board for risk management
- Understand the role and purpose of internal and external assurance on the control of risks in organisations
Key concepts in risk managementReal unit · Institute of Risk Management
What you'll be able to do
- Compare and contrast the core concepts of risk and risk management, utilising a range of different recognised approaches and perspectives.
- Examine the key developments and milestones in the evolution of risk management as a discipline and practice.
- Understand the significant influence of enterprise risk management (ERM) on an organisation's strategic planning, governance structures, and overall resilience to potential disruptions.
- Review the approaches to and integrations of different risk management specialisms (e.g., financial risk, operational risk, compliance risk) within an organisation's broader risk management framework.
- Examine different international risk management standards and approaches, such as ISO 31000 and COSO, and their application in various organisational settings.
Managing, monitoring and reporting risksReal unit · Institute of Risk Management
What you'll be able to do
- Establish the criteria that define a real and effective control in the context of managing risks within an organisation.
- Understand how to evaluate the effectiveness of existing controls in order to determine the extent to which risks are being adequately managed.
- Understand the processes and techniques involved in monitoring risks to ensure they remain within acceptable levels.
- Distinguish between the specific risks, controls, and underlying processes that require review and improvement within an organisation's risk management framework.
- Examine the methods and channels used for reporting risks to both internal and external stakeholders, ensuring transparency and accountability.
- Understand how different risk decision-making styles within an organisation are linked to its overall risk appetite, risk tolerance levels, and prevailing risk culture.
ResilienceReal unit · Institute of Risk Management
What you'll be able to do
- Examine the role of risk management in achieving and maintaining organisational resilience.
- Examine the potential disruptors that an organisation may face.
- Understand the role of risk management in supporting agility and innovation within organisations.
- Determine the most appropriate risk management tools to test the resilience of an organisation.
- Understand the purpose and content of organisations' viability statements.
Risk context, objectives and assessmentReal unit · Institute of Risk Management
What you'll be able to do
- Examine an organisation's internal and external contexts, including its strategic objectives and operating environment.
- Understand the importance of framing objectives and key performance indicators (KPIs) in relation to risk management.
- Examine the risks faced by an organisation using risk articulation and risk identification techniques.
- Establish the significance of the identified risks, linked to risk appetite and tolerance, using a variety of techniques.
Risk culture and appetiteReal unit · Institute of Risk Management
What you'll be able to do
- Understand the value of risk culture for organisations
- Examine the influence of people on the risk culture of an organisation
- Examine the risk culture model of an organisation
- Understand how to measure a successful risk culture of an organisation
- Examine the risk appetite, risk tolerance and capacity of an organisation
- Examine risk appetite statements of organisations
- Examine the risk appetite criteria and trigger points of an organisation and how these are monitored
Risk management and strategyReal unit · Institute of Risk Management
What you'll be able to do
- Examine the key elements of an organisation's overall strategic objectives and how they relate to risk management.
- Understand the interconnectedness between risk management practices and the strategic direction of organisations, recognising how risk can both threaten and enable strategic goals.
- Appraise different risk management strategy models and frameworks commonly used by organisations, evaluating their strengths and weaknesses in various contexts.
Risk management competenciesReal unit · Institute of Risk Management
What you'll be able to do
- Understand the professional competencies, and technical and behavioural skills required for risk managers and individuals involved in the risk management process.
- Understand the road maps available for developing risk management competency.
- Examine the specific skills needed for facilitating an effective risk workshop.
- Understand the data analysis skills required by risk managers and individuals involved in the risk management process.
- Evaluate the need for risk management professionals to influence decisions and actions effectively.
- Understand the value that a risk management professional brings to an organisation.
Risk maturity - Embedding and maintaining a strong risk management cultureReal unit · Institute of Risk Management
What you'll be able to do
- Understand the key elements of risk management maturity.
- Examine the interconnectedness of risks and the importance of integrating risk management across the organisation.
- Understand the steps an organisation can take to achieve risk management maturity.
- Understand how organisations can continually improve their risk management practices by effectively managing change.
Strategic planning for Enterprise Risk ManagementReal unit · Institute of Risk Management
What you'll be able to do
- Examine the fundamental principles and key attributes that underpin effective risk management practices within organisations.
- Develop a comprehensive and effective risk management strategy tailored to the specific needs and objectives of an organisation.
- Understand the various stages and components of risk management processes, from identification and assessment to mitigation and monitoring.
SustainabilityReal unit · Institute of Risk Management
What you'll be able to do
- Understand the role of risk management in ensuring organisational sustainability.
- Examine the evolution of sustainability as a business concept.
- Understand the role of risk management in enabling the sustainability of an organisation's operations and strategy.
- Understand the impact of climate change risk management on an organisation and its stakeholders.
The honest bit
You’ve started things before
Most courses were built for a room full of people who aren’t you. A cohort moves on whether or not your week allowed it, and by the third week the thing you’re behind on becomes the reason you stop opening it.
There’s no cohort here, and no timetable to fall behind. Before anything starts, Zavmo asks when you’re sharpest and how long you can realistically sit down for, then builds the sessions around those answers. A bad fortnight changes your pace. It doesn’t put you behind.
And you only pay once you start learning. Searching and planning are free, and you can cancel any time — so the cost of finding out is an afternoon, not a year.
Your passport
Every credit is a stamp you keep
Level 5 credits are regulated. They don’t vanish when a subscription ends or a website closes. They travel to any employer, and Zavmo keeps the map of what you’ve earned and what’s next.
Each stamp is a real unit registered against this qualification.
Who’d teach you this
The Evidence Evaluator
Assessor
Helps you show what you can actually do, gathering the evidence that proves it as you learn.
Meet all twelve tutorsWhere this connects
Where these credits take you
A qualification is never a dead end here. See the jobs its credits open, the national occupational standards its units map to, and the future skills they quietly build.
- Assess, Analyse and Evaluate Risks
- Determine the organisation’s approach to risk
- Develop and maintain relationships relevant to risk management in a financial services organisation
- Establish and maintain transparent and formal structures and policies in relation to risk and internal controls
- Identify and assess the risks inherent in the organisation’s business model
- Identify, analyse and assess risk
- Manage risks relating to data and information in a health context
- Manage, monitor and report risk
Where this can lead
Risk Governance Officer
Your career path here is truly what you make of it. We're committed to helping you grow, whether that's into senior leadership, deep specialisation, or even exploring new areas within the business. The key is to be proactive, continuously learn, and always look for ways to add value. We're excited to see where you take it.
See the whole journey →Showing 6 roles, drawn from 246 job records mapped to this qualification.
Skills it covers
What the job actually needs. These are the standards the units are built against, in the words employers and awarding bodies already use for the work itself.
How you’ll actually learn this
One-to-one, on your own real work
A qualification is usually something done to you: sit the class, sit the exam, hope it sticks. Here it’s the opposite. You learn it one-to-one with a companion, on your own real work, and you keep going until you can use it, not just recall it.
Applied to your work in any of these jobs
This unit enables learners to explore risk management approaches from an individual's perspective across banking, insurance, Information Technology, and Health and Safety sectors. Learners will understand specific risk considerations and management techniques relevant to each field.
- Remember
- Understand
- Apply
- Analyse
- Evaluate
- Create
Built for IRM's Level 5 International Certificate in Enterprise Risk Management
12 units in this credential, in the order it lists them, awarded by Institute of Risk Management.
- Approaches to risk management
- Corporate governance and risk assurance
- Key concepts in risk management
- Managing, monitoring and reporting risks
- Resilience
- Risk context, objectives and assessment
and 6 more in the full unit list below.
One to one, not one to many
No two people run this the same way
A course is written once and handed to everyone. This is assembled around you, and keeps changing as it learns you. Five things it reads, and what each one changes.
- Your actual work Every unit is taught against a live piece of your own work, not a worked example from a textbook.
- What you already know The first conversation finds your starting point, so you skip what you can already do and spend the time on what you cannot.
- The conditions you learn under Not a learning-styles quiz. The evidence does not support those. The dimensions the research does back, read once and used to shape the plan.
- How far you got last time It picks up mid-thought. The tutor knows what you said, what you struggled with, and what it asked you to try.
- Which tutor suits the moment Twelve of them, each for a different kind of thinking. The one who walks you through a first idea is not the one who stress-tests it.
See how you learn, free. Eight questions, no sign-up. A directional taster; the diagnostic inside Zavmo goes deeper and keeps adapting.
Why it sticks
Most courses stop at remembering
There’s a well-known ladder of how deeply you learn something, called Bloom’s Taxonomy. Most courses get you up the first two rungs: you remember some facts, you pass a test, you forget it. Real skill lives at the top. Judging, deciding, creating. And this isn’t a generic ladder: every rung has a named Zavmo tutor who walks you up it.
- 6CreateThe Creative Catalyst
- 5EvaluateThe Evidence Evaluator
- 4AnalyseThe Analyst
- 3ApplyThe Coach
- 2UnderstandThe Connector
- 1RememberThe Builder
Where most courses leave you Where Zavmo takes you
The value
Why the companion is worth £70 a month
You’re not paying for the units. They’re regulated, and the same wherever you earn them. You’re paying for the one thing that decides whether you actually get there: a companion that makes them stick, on your real work.
That is one-to-one on this qualification, every day, on the work you already do, for £70 a month. Your first module is free, so you can see the teaching before you pay for any of it. Billed monthly, cancel any time and billing stops.
Earned on your own work, taught to the top.
Everything you just read, learned one-to-one on the job you already do. Your first module is free, so you can see the teaching before you pay for any of it.
Build my plan, freeNo card. See how this qualification maps onto your role and meet the tutors who’d teach it, free. The learning begins when you subscribe. It’s £70 a month, billed monthly. Cancel any time and billing stops.