News and Blogs Becoming a financial adviser with modular DipFA

Richard Cooper explains why, if you’re thinking of becoming a financial adviser, the best route forward is through the modular Diploma for Financial Advisers (DipFA) qualification  

Scotland has 282 mountains over 3,000 feet (914 metres), known as Munros after the mountaineer who first listed them all. You’re likely aware that some people see the Munros as a challenge and set out to climb each one. If they succeed, they become a ‘compleater’.  

You might wonder what this has to do with professional qualifications.  

The parallel is that becoming a ‘compleater’ is not for the faint-hearted. Munros might not be huge mountains taken individually, in fact it’s quite possible to climb three in a day, but that day will be a long one. National Trust Scotland warns, for example, that the Five Sisters Ridge is “challenging – the terrain is steep and rough, and navigation is tricky even in good weather”. Fit walkers need 8 to 10 hours to cover the ten mile route.  

Professional qualifications are not dissimilar. Even if you’re diligent and motivated, it can be hard to keep moving forward, given the uphill work of maintaining a full-time career, a domestic life and other commitments all at the same time.  And what happens if you face some major life change, or the regulator introduces new regulation? Is this like a rockfall in your path?  

Happily, like bagging Munros, our Diploma for Financial Advisers (DipFA) does not have to be tackled all at once, or in a particular order. Students can register by module and the course of study chosen can be completed in as little as nine months or as many as 12. (The six modules are: financial services, regulation & ethics, taxation, investment, protection, retirement planning, and coursework.) Those who pass all six modules will have met the minimum qualifications for a financial adviser, as laid down by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). 

That flexibility can make all the difference. For example, one of our students studied for the DipFA alongside a very busy life as a Mortgage and Protection Adviser, maintaining her responsibilities as a carer and as the person looking after a family home.

If you have been used to ‘linear’ examinations – that is you study for two or three years and then take a ‘final’ exam – you might think that the modular approach will be less stringent, or that students doing modular work are in danger of just forgetting important aspects of the course because they don’t have an ‘all or nothing’ final test.  

As it turns out, research into modular v. linear examinations at school level found no difference in learning outcomes between the two. More importantly, particularly when it comes to professional exams, the flexibility of a modular approach allows a deep-dive into the topics that are most relevant to a particular career development needs at a particular time.   

Exams exist to demonstrate certain levels of knowledge and skills. However, they have their roots in the demands of schools and colleges, so how they are delivered doesn’t always fit the real requirements of learning in a professional environment.  

That’s why we consulted with the adviser community on how best to ensure that our courses really support – and challenge – professional learners. The feedback led us to completely refresh the way in which DipFA is delivered and, in particular, to move to the type of continuous, modular assessments that really test the skills and knowledge needed to be successful for clients and companies.  

Students of the modular DipFA develop a rounded and cross-cutting understanding of good financial advice: one that meets regulatory standards. Yes, modules can be tackled individually, and in any order, but that is because they all complement and reinforce each other. For example, many students find ‘regulation & ethics’ to be one of the tougher modules, but that is because it ensures that students consider everything they learn with ethics in view. The modules can be tackled alone, but none of them is stand-alone. They fit together to provide a full professional training.  

‘Compleating’ the DipFA might look daunting, and it’s not easy, but you can now choose the route up that’s right for you.