CII president John Moore provides an update as he traverses the nation, spreading the message of Chartered
My Chartered dream continues and I take huge encouragement from the increasing number of young professional groups around the local Institutes -- young people with enthusiasm for a qualified professional career, enjoying networking opportunities and seeking a programme to develop business skills. For me, this is a must for all Institutes and should be led by guidance directly from the CII, showing the Chartered pathway and creating the next generation of business leaders.
I was grateful for a fantastic reception in Aberdeen recently and enjoyed the debate with presidents from Inverness, Glasgow and Edinburgh on the challenge to engage more students and leaders to look again at the relevance and expertise gained from Dip CII qualification.
In Hull, my thanks go to the Jelf Partnership for bringing together more youngsters and a fascinating exchange on how the CII could work to further inspire new careers. Then it was on to the remarkable Birmingham Town Hall, for lunch and discussion with council representatives and more enthusiastic young people. And finally, coming home to Cardiff and our famous City Hall was magnificent -- an important and special evening but again, I felt a familiar frustration that there were too many members with only Cert CII and no ambition of studying towards Dip CII -- an achievement that would be hugely valuable for clients, policyholders and the profession as a whole.
In addition, I would like to thank my colleagues Grant Scott, director at Evolve, and Tali Shlomo, people engagement director at CII, for their support, guidance and encouragement as I journey up and down the country to keep our Chartered dream on track.
HOME AND AWAY
At a recent Aldermanbury board meeting the impressive new addition, John Bissell, updated us on possible improvements and opportunities, as well as highlighting Sian Fisher and Steve Jenkins' visit to India to recognise our longstanding overseas relationships. He also pointed out that our international revenue represents 11% of the overall income.
I would also like to take the opportunity to mention the recently launched Chartered Body Alliance which was launched on 1 March. With the CII as a major part of this, our objective is to work together to promise professionalism in financial services for the public good and ensure the development of best practice in terms of ethical codes of conduct, gender and diversity, and innovation. I am also happy to say the feedback has been positive from the press and the next steps will be to align ethical codes of conduct and to develop a joint consumer campaign to promote professionalism.
A word to our CII learning director Simon Graham, who recently educated me on remote invigilation -- the human invigilation of the exam session via webcam and microphone. And how, if successful, it will allow us to bring the exam centre right into students offices and even homes and at a time and date to suit them. It all sounds modern, simple and extremely relevant.
Finally, may I say what a magnificent pleasure it was to welcome several of our colleagues with more than 50 years of CII membership to the Great Hall for a lovely few hours and it was an honour to award them with special certificates and congratulatory letters.
All these members, remarkably, have FCII or ACII qualifications -- my dream lives on.
John Moore MBE is president of the Chartered Insurance Institute