CPD Changes

by Catherine Court, Head of Training & Competence

The Financial Services Authority has given some guidance as to what CPD should look like. There are six golden rules...

1. CPD should be relevant to your role or any anticipated changes to that role.
2. CPD should maintain your knowledge by reference to the current qualification standards for your role.
3. CPD should contribute to your overall skill and knowledge.
4. CPD should address any identified gaps in your technical knowledge.
5. CPD should have written learning objectives based on learning needs and a documented learning outcome.
6. CPD should be measurable and be capable of being independently verified.

For many of you, this will mean a change to the way in which you think about CPD.

CPD should ideally be from Level 4 material (at least) for investment advisers, and Level 3 for mortgage and protection advisers. This may cause a slight problem for some advisers who may not have access to the ongoing up to date material.

Points 4 and 5 seem to indicate that you need to identify any gaps in your technical knowledge, and that you will then need a written learning objective or development plan with a documented learning outcome. This involves a bit more work than just popping along to a local seminar on a whim to get a few more hours on the chart.

So advisers will have to think about what gaps they have, and what indicators they have to identify these gaps initially. Then, once a gap has been identified, they should be documenting where they are now, where they want to be and how to get there. This will involve some CPD activities and then the result, hopefully a positive one, will be measured and evaluated.

Although these rules don’t come into practice until the end of the year, we urge all advisers to think about adopting them as early as possible to ensure best practice.
cathi.court@financial.ltd.uk

SEE ALSO: IFAtv: CPD CHANGES