Checked by CompareHQ on 6 October 2026. We reviewed Cambridge Management and Leadership School's own website, and the services, facts and accreditations on this profile reflect what it says. Work at Cambridge Management and Leadership School? Claim this profile to keep it up to date yourself.
Cambridge Management and Leadership School is a UK independent provider of management, leadership and business qualifications, delivered online and in short-course formats to professionals in the UK and internationally. Its programmes are accredited by ASIC (Accreditation Service for International Schools, Colleges and Universities), at which it holds Premier status, and it is an approved centre of the awarding body Qualifi.
The Chartered Management Institute (CMI) is a UK professional body for management and leadership, founded in 1947 and based in Kettering.
It awards management and leadership qualifications from Level 2, for team leaders, to Level 8, for senior directors and chief executives, with additional subjects including leadership for artificial intelligence (AI) and sustainability leadership. Its qualification library also lists Level 7 qualifications in Leadership Coaching and Mentoring. Qualifications are delivered by CMI Approved Centres across the UK and through management apprenticeships, and learners receive CMI membership while they study. CMI also awards Chartered Manager status, which it says no other professional body can grant.
Individual membership is priced monthly: Friend is free, Subscriber costs £5 a month and Member £15 a month. Qualification prices are not published and are set through Approved Centres. CMI was founded as the British Institute of Management, received its Royal Charter in 2002 and is a registered charity in England and Wales (number 1091035). Its website reports a membership community of more than 230,000, over 12,000 Chartered Managers and 729 partners delivering its training and qualifications.
Common Purpose is a not-for-profit leadership development organisation based in London, founded as a charity in 1989 and now working in 10 countries.
Its programmes bring together people from different sectors and backgrounds to build the skills to lead across boundaries of sector, culture and organisation. Open programmes in the UK include Lighthouse for senior leaders, Arena for high-potential and senior leaders, Beacon for high-potential leaders and Legacy for people aged 18 to 25. Lighthouse in the UK runs for 45 hours over 7 months, with in-person sessions in London, Cardiff, Belfast and Edinburgh and one online session. It also designs programmes for employers and universities on change leadership, equity, diversity and inclusion, and women in leadership.
Lighthouse in the UK costs £6,000 plus value added tax (VAT), and a limited bursary scheme is available. Prices for other programmes are not published. The parent body, The Common Purpose Charitable Trust, is a company limited by guarantee (number 02832875) and a registered charity (number 1023384). It reports more than 144,000 alumni and work with 22,000 organisations, with hubs in cities including London, Berlin, Johannesburg, Singapore and Chicago.
Corndel is a London-based provider of apprenticeships and workplace training in leadership, artificial intelligence (AI) and data, incorporated in 2016.
Its Leadership Academy runs management apprenticeships accredited by the Chartered Management Institute (CMI). They start with a Level 3 programme for new and aspiring managers, which lasts 12 months plus a month of assessment, and move on to Level 5 programmes for experienced managers (14 months plus two) and a Level 6 degree apprenticeship (30 months plus three). An Executive Development Programme with Imperial College London runs for five months and is aimed at directors and senior leaders. Each learner has a named Corndel coach for one-to-one support, alongside group workshops, masterclasses and an online learning platform. Separate AI and data academies are run with Imperial. Corndel sells its programmes to employers.
Apprenticeships are paid for through the Growth and Skills Levy and the Executive Development Programme is commercially funded. Prices are not published. The Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted) inspected Corndel in February 2026 and graded it Strong standard in every area it assessed. On the Department for Education (DfE) apprenticeship service, employers and apprentices both rate it Excellent for 2025 to 2026, and 78.3% of its apprentices achieved in 2024 to 2025, against a national rate of 65.4%. CMI describes Corndel as a strategic partner and named it Training Provider of the Year for 2024. Corndel states that it is a Microsoft Training Services Partner.
Cranfield School of Management is the business school of Cranfield University, based at Cranfield in Bedfordshire and formally established in 1967.
Its executive development arm runs open programmes, custom programmes for organisations, online short courses, apprenticeships and business simulations. Open programmes are grouped for levels from individual contributors and line managers through to directors, the C-suite and boards. The Breakthrough Leadership Programme, for senior managers moving into director roles, combines virtual learning, two five-day residential modules on campus and review sessions at 6 and 12 months, with a coach throughout. For current and aspiring non-executive directors (NEDs) it runs the Non-Executive Directors' Programme, a three-day residential course at Cranfield campus, and the Non-Executive Directors Essentials Programme, an online, self-paced course of 8 modules developed with VirtualNonExecs and booked through it as stage one of the Cranfield NED pathway. Named clients include Jaguar Land Rover, BAE Systems, Shell, L'Oréal and UNICEF.
Fees are published for each programme, for example £17,950 plus value added tax (VAT) for the Breakthrough Leadership Programme, including accommodation, £3,950 plus VAT for the Non-Executive Directors' Programme, including accommodation, and £1,999 plus VAT for the Non-Executive Directors Essentials Programme. The school states it is accredited by AACSB International (the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business), the Association of MBAs (AMBA) and the European Quality Improvement System (EQUIS). In the Financial Times 2026 executive education rankings it placed 29th globally for open programmes and 21st for custom programmes.
