Global certification with the Cisi qualification

By now, everyone in the business community should be preparing for the business environment of the future, where most jobs require specialized skills instead of just general management expertise.

For financial services skills, the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment (Cisi) is a globally recognized qualification which gives those who pursue it a good chance of achieving success.

The Cisi has foundation, qualifying, advanced and professional level study pathways in operations, wealth management, compliance/risk, capital markets/corporate finance, financial planning and Islamic finance.

These offer practitioners the opportunity to achieve core competence and build strong careers in all areas of financial services.

The qualifications are designed, developed and reviewed regularly by senior professional practitioners to ensure they are purpose-built for the market and remain relevant.

Major banks and financial organizations worldwide use Cisi qualifications to benchmark the knowledge of their staff.

Some of Cisi’s worldwide corporate supporters include the following: HSBC, Standard Chartered, Citi, UBS, Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse.

We asked Mark Valino, who took the Cisi exam on international introduction on securities and investment, and will conduct review classes on the same subject matter, for three reasons why the Cisi qualification is different.

1. Emphasis on analysis and application

The program and membership framework is welcoming, rather than intimidating. The exams are ladderized but focused and leading to a specialization. The questions are meant to test application/analysis more than just simple mastery of concepts. The review tools were really helpful as they are easy to comprehend.

2. Flexibility

Cisi is very flexible. Most other certifications are needs-based. A person who seeks one takes it according to his/her personal career or corporate succession planning goals. Furthermore, most certifications offer a predetermined, linear track or straight path to the title. With Cisi, interested takers can secure the certification through different paths according to their preferred skills and/or fields.

3. Focus on learning outcomes

Most other certifications highlight how hard the exam is. Cisi wants to reassure interested takers that this is not necessarily so. Cisi takes a different approach by focusing on the learning outcome and helping students to pass the certification successfully through review classes.

Inquirer Academy is an accredited training provider of Cisi. The Academy will conduct a review class for those who wish to take the international introduction to securities and investment exam (which is a requirement for the Investment Operations Certificate) on Jan. 19 and 26, 2019. Other certifications will be available in the future.

To know more about Cisi, you may visit www.cisi.org.

The Inquirer Academy is at 4168 Don Chino Roces Ave. corner Ponte St., Makati City. For more information about the workshops or if you would like to add your input on the article, you may e-mail [email protected], call (632) 834-1557 or 771-2715 and look for Jerald Miguel.

The author is the Executive Director of Inquirer Academy.