The competency framework has been developed in consultation with the industry to reflect the needs and requirements of the profession and are designed to be used by employers, pensions professionals, trustees and training providers. The framework provides an effective method to assess, maintain, and monitor the knowledge, skills, and attributes of people within the sector.

Employers will be able to use the competences to identify gaps in an organisation’s skills and identify and commission targeted training that makes better use of resources. Pension professionals and trustees will be able to use the framework to identify their strengths and areas for development and help them choose which qualifications and learning interventions would best help them. Training providers can use the competences to design training and develop learning materials that support the development of professionals.

The competences are grouped into seven different functional areas:

1. The Role of the Pensions Profession
2. Strategy and Policy Development
3. Leadership and Management
4. Operational Management
5. Quality and Client Management
6. Compliance, Ethics and Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG)
7. Trusteeship

As part of the work the team carried out in developing the competency framework, the PMI has also re-evaluated its set of qualifications and the first to be re-launched will be the Retirement Provision Certificate (RPC). The materials for this qualification have been completely redeveloped and form the basis of a modern and contemporary pensions qualification fit for the needs of the sector. Given the disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic this year, all exams have been available to take online with virtual invigilation.

Keith Hoodless, Director of Qualifications and Lifelong Learning at the Pensions Management Institute, said: “The new competency framework is designed to be a model that gives a blueprint for excellent performance within an organisation or sector.

Due to the success we have had this Autumn in putting our exams online we are also going to offer all our exams online in the future E-proctoring, the live invigilation process was a concern for everyone, including us, and was undertaken by group activity or by individual observation. None of the candidates knew which type of invigilation they were going to have until the time of the exam, and everyone turned up expecting to be 1-2-1 invigilated. All learners were advised of this process before their exam, so as to alleviate their concerns. This relaxed informative approach meant that we had no issues at all with invigilation and learners commented on how unobtrusive the process was..

We take pride in our heritage in supporting and developing the experts who are responsible for running the UK’s pensions industry and hope that this new framework and better accessibility to exams via online will help the industry in maintaining and improving professional standards in every area of pension scheme management, consultancy and trusteeship.”

The competency framework is now available here on the PMI website.