Alison Morgan passes both ICAEW's CII and the CPI exams

It's congratulations to QAD's Alison Morgan, on passing both ICAEW's Certificate in Insolvency (CII) and the Certificate of Proficiency in Insolvency (CPI) exams - a rare and possibly unique double.

She also came first nationally in her CPI exams, even though on the day she was feeling quite unwell.

Alison first qualified as an insolvency practitioner in 2001 and has been practising since then, joining ICAEW in 2008. Recently however, clients and prospective students have asked her about the two available intermediate qualifications: CII and CPI, their differences and relative merits.

She wanted to be best placed to answer these with full knowledge and promote CII particularly, which led her to qualify in both in 2015.

Three key CII messages

Alison said: some comments I've had from IPs as employers and candidates themselves indicated a level of misunderstandings about the two qualifications. So it’s helpful for me, in my unique position, to be able to talk from personal experience. There are now three key messages about CII that I’m keen to relay.

1. CII is not the easy option - as I began my studies I realised just how much material we actually need to know to pass this qualification, and I started to doubt how much of it would come back to me without the tools, aide memoires and checklists we use in our daily lives. That said, I was glad about how it was assessed as I hadn’t done a written-style exam for 14 years, and all the reports I present are largely pre-populated, much as I find in other firms during my visits.
2. CII is flexible, in both how it is taught and assessed - classroom recordings mean you can re-visit lessons any time, although the shorter modules of two hours make it so much easier to accommodate than previously. I was actually ill on one of the lecture days and went home, but the current virtual classroom recordings allow candidates to catch up easily. Also, with CII I got my exams results the next business day and, if I hadn't passed, I could have re-sat them the next month. With CPI though, I had to wait over a month for my results and if I hadn't passed there would have been a six-month wait to re-take them. By that time, the examination would have been updated to reflect legislative changes that I hadn't been taught.
3. CII is the future - other ICAEW qualifications, including the ICAEW Certificate in Finance, Accounting and Business, have used an e-platform since 2007. Our students told us that’s what they wanted, so we listened. CPI however still seems a lot more “traditional” in its approach.

Positive and objective

Alison's boss, Regional Director, Bob Pinder was obviously delighted with her success:

“She worked really hard to get these two qualifications and it's so useful now to have her able to promote CII positively and objectively. And, it's not often someone takes the ‘rival’ qualification, let alone takes it and comes first in the whole country!”

If you would like to know more about ICAEW's Certificate in Insolvency and how to promote it effectively, contact Alison - she will be happy to talk to you. Alison.Morgan@icaew.com