Please can you help me with something regarding Board Notice 135, which contains the list of approved qualifications? In the Board Notice, the letters S & G appear under respective sub categories. What do they mean?
All qualifications are considered against specific qualifying criteria for each licence category. For example, short-term personal lines (licence category 1.2), has specific criteria which an advisor must meet in order to be able to do the job.
Where a qualification contains content adjudged to meet 80% of the qualification an “S” (Specific) status is given to that qualification. A qualification which is adjudged to contain less than 80% of what is required, it is rated “G”, for Generic.
There is a third category SP, which means that the qualification conforms 100% to the qualifying criteria.
All of the above is important in relation to the Level 2 regulatory exams. Unfortunately, there is still no clarity on whether there will be changes to the Level 2 exams, or when it will commence. In our view, it is best to wait for the announcement on the future of these exams before proceeding. The mistakes which appear in Board Notice 135 have also not yet been rectified, which makes things risky.
We expect further news on the regulatory exams towards the end of March, or early April, when the Level 1 Exams for those appointed before 2010, reaches its deadline.
Perhaps a “wait and see” approach, is currently the best option.
