A financial advice firm has reported a technical incident at an examination session organised by the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII).
A staff member of advice firm Lockhart Consultancy was unable to take the CII R02 examination last Friday (22 April) due to technical problems.
Lockhart Consultancy director Stewart Lockhart told Mortgage Strategy sister magazine Money Marketing that his staff member was unable to log on to the examination system.
He said that he tried to contact the CII but did not receive any help. As a result, the candidate registered a complaint with the CII.
Lockhart comments: “No candidate should be studying, turn up for the exam and be turned away because of a system.
“Nobody seems to be taking account of that.
“Small businesses of our size are encouraging staff to take the exam, give them time off to study, but then they are unable to even get logged on this exam.
“The CII does not appreciate the knock-on effect that this has on small businesses.”
A spokesperson for the CII tells Money Marketing: “While we are not able to comment on individual issues, we are currently aware of an IT issue which occurred on Friday morning in relation to gaining access to the CII website which was resolved at around 10am GMT.
“We take these matters extremely seriously and are currently undertaking further investigations to resolve the issue as quickly and efficiently as possible in order to continue to improve the customer experience.
“It is only from such issues being reported directly to us that we can continually improve our offering, which allows so many candidates to complete their qualifications and continue their career journey.”
The CII recently told Money Marketing it is continuing its efforts to solve technical issues with online examinations.
The issue that has flared on and off since the start of the pandemic has caused outbursts from advisers on social media.
Cura managing director Kathryn Knowles tells Money Marketing she had to deal with issues linked to the identification process while taking the R01 examination.
She added that the CII contacted her the day after she flagged up the issues she encountered.
