The Securities & Investment Institute (SII) announced that 585 candidates sat the units of its prestigious Diploma and SII Masters examinations, of which 396 passed. The overall pass rate was 68%. The numbers taking these examinations increased by 8% on those taking the examinations last summer.
The SII Diploma is aimed at senior practitioners and is pitched at a standard to match National Qualifications Framework Level 7 – Masters Level. Individuals achieving passes in this qualification have proved they have reached an extremely high standard of expertise and practice within the financial services industry, in areas as diverse as Financial Derivatives, Global Operations Management, or the Institute’s heartland, Private Client Investment Advice and Management.
This year’s cohort of successes also saw the first candidates to sit the new SII Masters Programme in Wealth Management. This programme is also pitched at NQF Level 7. The programme has been built on the strengths of the SII Diploma, bringing together material which is targeted specifically at the needs of senior staff working as discretionary portfolio managers, private bankers, IFAs and client relationship managers dealing with high net worth clients. This is a post-graduate level professional programme awarded by the SII and not a Masters degree awarded by a university.
The SII Masters in Wealth Management (SIIMWM) has three units: Financial Markets; Portfolio Construction Theory – both of which were examined this June – and Applied Wealth Management, which has a strong practical element developing the ability to construct portfolios tailored to the needs of different clients. The candidate results achieved this month reflect the first two units of this new qualification and bode well for those candidates who will be going on to take their final unit in the near future to complete their SIIMWM.
David Bowden, Managing Director of BPP said, “In our many years of providing training for this industry we have rarely seen such a fast take-up of a course at this level and it is pleasing to see the value that wealth managers are placing on gaining a professional qualification. We’d like to congratulate this initial group of students on these excellent results and look forward to further successes in the future.”
SII members and industry leaders in this sector of the industry who contributed to the development of the SII Masters in Wealth Management include Barclays Wealth, Rathbones and Charles Stanley.
Ruth Martin, Managing Director of the SII said, “We are delighted with the very strong numbers and excellent pass rates this year, particularly those for the new SII Masters units. Many congratulations to all our candidates who have worked so hard.”
