Santam is committed to empowering intermediaries with the training and skills development to stay ahead of industry trends and changes. This includes unmatched support to intermediaries to help you get those all-important continuing professional development (CPD) hours in which you have to showcase how you’ve upskilled yourself on insurance market activity, changes in legislation and changes related to your area of specialisation.
The Financial Services Conduct Authority (FSCA) recently released amendments to these requirements. We spoke to Karen Muuren of Santam Intermediated Business to find out what specifics intermediaries should note and how the company is helping intermediaries to hit their CPD targets.
CPD requirements: what to watch out for
The FSCA introduced CPD requirements in order to ensure that financial services providers (FSPs), key individuals (KIs) and representatives maintain their competence and develop additional appropriate expertise. This includes the continuous development and updating of knowledge, skills and abilities to remain current in a changing and dynamic environment.
In the last CPD cycle (1 June 2018 to 31 May 2019), a number of intermediaries completed CPD activities not relevant/appropriate to the role, function and activities particular to the specific financial service and the products of the FSP/KI/rep.
“We found that some intermediaries did take part in training, but not in courses relevant to them, for example pertaining to investments or life products, when they are only licensed for short term products and services,” explains Muuren. “This could have been due to uncertainty, availability of CPD activities and cost implications – something that Santam works hard to assist our partners with.”
To recap, FSPs/KIs/reps must ensure that the type and combination of CPD activities undertaken:
- Are relevant to their function and role
- Contribute to their knowledge, skills, expertise, professional and ethical standards
- Address any identified gaps in technical knowledge, generic knowledge, the context within which the financial services are rendered and knowledge of the applicable laws
- Take into consideration changes to internal/external conditions relevant to the financial service and financial products of the particular FSP/KI/rep
Santam: an industry-leading CPD provider
“Santam as a CPD provider ensures that all its CPD activities are submitted to IISA/FPI/ICFP (SAQA recognised bodies) to be accredited and allocated with an hour value,” says Karen. “Therefore intermediaries know exactly what hours they will be getting for the year. Our dedicated learning and development team makes every effort to put together an offering that goes beyond online learning to help keep intermediaries at the top of their game in a fast-moving world.”
Here are a few of Santam’s initiatives:
- Free learning on the Santam Learning Portal
Look out for a variety of relevant and appropriate courses on the Broker Portal (Santam Learning Portal) which is offered free of charge to our intermediary partners. This content is continuously updated and upon successful completion of assessments, Santam will issue CPD certificates which intermediaries can submit to their compliance officers for CPD hours tracking.
- Regular intermediary interactions at Santam hosted events
Throughout the year, Santam creates opportunities for relevant and appropriate intermediary interactions where CPD hours can be earned. These include:
- Barometer report presentations
- Santam conferences
- Santam broker breakfasts
- Fraud awareness through film
During Fraud Awareness Week in November 2019, Santam’s Group Business Integrity Unit showcased the film Wizard of Lies with discussion points and a debriefing. This was a fun and interactive way to raise awareness and perform training, earning intermediary partners 3 CPD hours each.
- Constantly evolving in 2020
“This year, Santam will offer even more accredited events,” says Muuren. “These will include various opportunities to hear from subject matter experts and get valuable input on relevant and appropriate topics/courses that will assist FSPs/KIs/reps to develop additional expertise and stay up to date with appropriate knowledge.”
- Extending Santam’s RIA-accredited course
Also in the pipeline for 2020 is to extend Santam Risk Services’ accredited risk identification assessment course to our intermediary partners.
If you have any questions about CPD points or your professional development journey, speak to your relationship manager or get in touch with us. For more advice tailored to intermediaries, visit our blog for more useful articles.
