Education

National Occupational Standards (NOS)

View Draft Standards & TAKE SURVEY

The Advice Activity draft ApEx Standards are now available for consultation and feedback from industry practitioners and interested parties. The consultation forms an important part of the process in the development of Appropriate Exam (ApEx) Standards and, by extension, the qualifications used to examine at the new professional benchmark level for all individuals advising on retail investments. It is vital we maintain the level of participation for this next phase of the consultation and we would urge all sectors to get involved and provide feedback and suggestions for improvement. We welcome and encourage all feedback and give a commitment to consider and respond to all recommendations and any concerns raised.

The process will be similar to the consultation on the core ApEx Standards with the exception that there will be two distinct strands to reflect the different advice activities being supported.

Take the survey now in four easy steps

Read the background to the survey HERE
Review the draft Standards¹
- Retail Investment Advice - advising on Packaged Products
- Retail Investment Advice - advising on Securities/Derivatives or advising and dealing in Securities/Derivatives
View the key improvements

Pensions and Retirement Planning key improvements summary

Financial Protection key improvements summary

Application of Knowledge key improvements summary

Securities key improvements summary

Derivatives key improvements summary
Complete the SURVEYS: SURVEYS are now closed

¹Appropriate Examination (ApEx) Standards are developed in a prescribed format which you may not be familiar with. The diagram below illustrates this format and provides some explanation of the terminology used.

Attainment Level	Learning Outcome	Indicative Content
Describes the level of learning complexity expected, using progressive descriptors from ‘awareness’ through to ‘conceptualise’ and ‘critically evaluate’	Provides the contextual detail for the level of learning attainment	Indicates the range of subjects to be covered to enable the learning outcome to be achieved. All subjects will be covered but the depth of detail is not prescribed. The range of subjects is not exhaustive and additional subjects can be covered if relevant to an exam syllabus