Certificate in Financial Services

This route develops knowledge and understanding of the financial services industry in general, including regulation and legislation, and the fundamental aspects of customer service, administration and marketing in financial services, and key retail investment products.

Ideal for those providing operational support to financial planners, including paraplanners, and technical support staff working in financial services.

Before studying, check to see whether any of your previous academic qualifications or credits from other professional bodies and institutes can be carried towards completion of the Certificate.

Find out more about recognition of prior learning

Specific study time guidelines are provided for each unit on its webpage and in the CII qualifications brochure. The notional Ofqual ‘Total Qualification Time’ for this qualification is 160 hours. This represents the time a student might typically take to complete the qualification by the shortest combination of units. The number of hours may increase dependent on the units chosen so will be between 160 - 210 hours.

Certificate level units are a assessed by multiple choice question (MCQ) exams. For online MCQ exams, results notification is immediate on completion. For paper-based MCQ exams, results are released five weeks' following the exam sitting.

Find out more about assessments, including policies and exam centres

Qualification units are delivered through purchasing an Enrolment, equipping you with the essential materials to support core learning. For a single fee, an Enrolment typically includes: study text, assessment and access to RevisionMate, our online study tool. 

We also offer additional revision aids through purchasing Enrolment plus for most key units. These range from Key fact booklets and Question packs, to Learn online tutorials.

Due to the extent of syllabus overlap, certain combinations of current and withdrawn units will result in only one award of credits.

If a withdrawn equivalent is held you may not need to complete a current unit in order to satisfy a qualification's completion rules. Clarification should always be sought from CII Customer Service.

Find out more about credit awards for equivalent units