Getting on with the job of planning a study campaign, with the dual aim of securing a diploma level professional qualification, and filling in the knowledge gaps which legacy exam subject passes leave behind, is pretty tricky.
Right now, the most difficult bit isn’t fitting in the time to do all the studying. It’s actually making a judgement about whether to set off immediately and continue on an existing exam track, or to sit tight and wait until a new, purpose built suite of examinations is finalised. Would setting off now be quicker, cheaper and less disruptive? Or would waiting for the new suite of exams be easier and more cost effective?
We know of one quick route to gain enough CII Exam Credits to attain a Diploma Qualification which many have adopted. It’s faster, and so relatively inexpensive, because it requires students to learn the technical content of just two study texts, JO1 and JO2. By studying for JO1 and JO2, students can opt to sit the examinations in JO1, JO2 and AF1, as AF1 is an advanced version of the previous two. Then in the next sitting they take JO8, the synoptic paper. If the Diploma Qualification was still the real goal, this would still be a valid combination, but it’s not.
The Retail Distribution Review destination is to evidence initial technical competence and ongoing retention not only of that technical knowledge but of its practical application. And this will be across the full range of subjects deemed by the Financial Services Skills Council (FSSC) to be required of a practising investment adviser.
The narrower the range of diploma examination subjects selected, the more extensive the gaps which will need to be plugged through CPD. So a strategic approach to existing exam subject choices would be wise, if indeed advisers decide that waiting for the new exam suite to emerge is not an option for them.
At an FSSC briefing earlier in the year, I sat beside the head of T&C of a large Network. We listened to the presentation, both realising at that moment how compelling it was to just wait for the new exam suite to emerge in the 3rd quarter of 2010, rather than expend valuable training budget which would yield exam passes, but still leave cavernous gaps for which a second round of funding would be required.
‘There isn’t time. I couldn’t risk it,’ my new found colleague said quietly to me.
He’s right of course. Where there are a large number of investment advisers to see safely across this dangerous highway, and so little time in which to do it, he and many others in similar roles just couldn’t contemplate waiting. They would effectively be wasting 9 months of what already is all but two and a half years of preparation time to the deadline date.
There is something illogical about the FSA rigidly sticking to a defined Retail Distribution Review professional standards deadline, without taking into account that the new exam suite will not be available for the first candidates to attempt until sometime during this summer. Who would willingly volunteer to be the guinea pigs? We all know how difficult it was for pioneer candidates entering the first sitting of the JO8 paper, with no past papers, no trainers with experience to pass down, no available tips. The FSA seems resolute in respect of the deadline, nevertheless.
So what can we all be doing? Well we can actually plan a technical learning programme around the Core Standards content, which was finalised at the end of November, and around the draft Advice Activity Standards content, which, whilst not finalised, has masses of content which will obviously make the final cut.
There’s a compelling argument for delaying the shepherding of large numbers of investment advisers through the gates of the live exam centres. However that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be getting on with the job of scheduling training and technical learning opportunities for the advisers of the future and steadily building their technical knowledge and their confidence to embrace the new exams as soon as they’re available.
The solution is not to waste time, if you choose not to sit an exam now, due to budget constraints or you want to wait for the new examinations, make sure you are developing a training programme that is focused around the general technical content of the known subjects.
The future is about developing technical knowledge and evidencing its retention. This is a future worth jumping the gun for. For this goal, right now is a perfect time to set out on the journey.
Mark Ehlinger - 18th March 2010