Many readers may have experienced the stress of exam results over the past month with children, nephews and nieces getting their GCSE and A level results. The joys and frustrations have been clear for all to see as the results of months, indeed years of work come in.
Of course insurance professionals are no strangers to exam pressures themselves. For many the acheivement of the current benchmark QCA Level 3 – approximately equivelent to the A level results we have been watching our children fight to achieve – was felt to be enough. We now have 14,000 advisers qualified to QCA Level 4 which is equivalent to the first year of a Degree course and this is the new benchmark level that the industry neeeds reach by the 2012 deadline set by the RDR. The effort to gain QCA level 4 is substantial and the CII says it should take 370 hours of study to get to a pass. Interestingly, the high levels of attainment achieved at A level that have promted so much press coverage about falling standards, are not being matched by Financial Advisers, indeed, rates in some subjects is below the 50% mark. This low pass rate is not an issue per se, as retakes are of course an option – but as the deadline imposed by RDR to gets closer, relying of retakes will become a very risky option.
Whilst it may still seem some time before the deadline of 2012, the logistical challenges and individual stresses and strains will soon begin to take its toll – especially the larger organisations. A quick review of the scheduled training and exams, expected pass rates and retakes across some of these organisations may reveal some scary statistics about how many will not meet the deadline in time.
To address this issue organisations must put in place detailed development plans with the appropriate levels of supervision and it is my contention that to do this without IT support is a costly and risky route. There are many good systems that can help advisors and supervisor build their training plans, execute them and equally important provide CPD monitoring and review progress. Through using such a systematic approach, supervisors can increase their span of control and organisations can better understand and manage their exposure to the 2012 deadlines. These development programmes need to start today and the larger firms and networks should consider what IT support they can get to help them. AT8 have been running a series of reviews of T&C systems over the past months (see our library section) and will also be willing to provide a free consultation snapshot summary to the first 10 distributor firms or networks considering investment in this area.
