CII sets up exams action group as advisers report fresh problems

A spokesperson for the CII said it regularly reviews customer and local institute feedback on the assessments and would now build a team to deal with the feedback. 

They said: "We have established an action group to deliver further improvements based on this feedback."

A number of financial advisers complained last week about issues around the verification process that candidates had to complete before beginning their exams. These exams are still taken remotely, due to Covid restrictions.

Karl Pemberton, managing director of Active Chartered Financial Planners, said two of his employees had experienced severe difficulties logging in to the exam system.

“The frustration is you contact the CII and all they do is apologise and defer the entry,” he said.

“We all accept that technical issues can arise, especially in the last few years, and credit is due to the CII for moving to a digital [offering].

“But it seems to be getting more and more common that their digital systems aren't as solid or as foolproof as they think they are…and there seems to be no understanding of the impact this can have on the individuals themselves.”

He said one of their apprentices was now sitting an exam for the fourth time, and had got herself into a “flap” about the issues. “That’s not how you should [feel] just before an exam.”

Pemberton said he has reached out to the CII to complain, and received what he believed to be an automated response the first time, and no response the second time round.

The CII said it was investigating a complaint that had been made about one exam sitting on January 31, and early investigations suggested a technology issue at the verification stage - though it's not certain this is Pemberton's complaint. 

Josh Richardson, financial planner at Informed Financial Planning, said two of his firm’s employees were more nervous about the potential technical difficulties they would face than the content of the exams themselves.

“[One candidate] was saying he was more worried that he hadn’t done the [pre-exam] recording correctly and that he was going to fail [as a result].”

He said the firm had been plagued with issues when taking the exams throughout the pandemic.

“We’ve had a number of our staff do the multiple choice exams and very few times they came back and said everything has been plain sailing.

“We’ve had people being kicked out due to internet issues on our side and their side,” he added.

“It just doesn’t add to a nice experience during an exam which isn’t enjoyable at the best of times.”

Verification pain

Alasdair Walker, managing director at Handford Aitkenhead & Walker, said he had had a “totally abysmal” experience with an “already-nervous” exam candidate.

“We have specifically set up a laptop just for exams after it took 90 minutes to set up a 'working' laptop in a way that the remote invigilators would accept,” he said.

Part of the initial run through is to take a photo of a form of ID with the laptop’s webcam. Walker and the exam candidate had started the process 30 minutes early in order to ensure there were no hiccups.

“It took 90 minutes to get the exam started, after the invigilators repeatedly rejected the photos he had taken as blurry, with a 15 minute wait between re-checking each time. 

“In the end, via live chat, we suggested emailing them a photo, and were told that wouldn’t be allowed, and were simply told we would need to use a different laptop.”

Long running issue

The CII has been plagued with remote exam issues for some time. Last October it apologised for technical glitches as both the CII and Personal Finance Society's websites crashed. Other issues included problems with accessing remote invigilation sessions and technical issues during sittings

Candidates had experienced a delayed start to a remote invigilated exam in July 2020, followed by some candidates experiencing technical issues with a remote multiple choice exam in August.

Technical issues continued in test centres in October that year, with candidates claiming their computer system froze or shut down hours into the exam.

However, these issues continued into 2021. In March, the CII was forced to issue its exam results a day early after it suffered a technical issue, causing confusion among candidates.

In April, it was reported that advisers were unable to take exams due to system failure.

sally.hickey@ft.com