FTAdviser.com

Advertising

Mark Roberts, head of financial regulation at the ifs, said: "We have seen a substantial year-on-year increase in the number of people taking the Certificate for Financial Advisers since it was relaunched in 2004. For example, the number of those taking this qualification in 2007 was 12 per cent higher than in 2006.

"The fact so many people are taking CeFA to enable them to become financial advisers is clearly great news for the industry. In addition, the average age of candidates taking CeFA is 33, which goes some way to addressing claims that the average age of a financial adviser is too high.

"If these trends continue we should see a drop in the average age of financial advisers as a whole and can be more confident there will not be a shortage of advisers in the future."

The ifs School of Finance is now preparing to roll out its Advanced Financial Advice Module. This next level of education and training will be focused on analysis, evaluation and the presentation of information, rather than the pure testing of technical knowledge, which characterises many qualifications currently available.

Feedback

AFAM is not yet available to all advisers, as the ifs is waiting for feedback from the pilots it undertook with a group of experienced professionals.

It is also waiting for the outcome of the FSA's Retail Distribution Review before finalising the content of the course.

The timing remains uncertain, although Mr Roberts remains confident the wait will be worthwhile. "Once we have analysed all the feedback from the pilots and the RDR begins to take shape, we will refine the qualification further and then make it available to all.

"The key to this is to have the skills needs, and the current gaps in meeting these needs, dictate the future rather than attempt to shoehorn existing strategies into future practice."