Training and certification of stock market professionals will continue during the quarantine period

Due to the spread of COVID-19 coronavirus disease on the territory of Ukraine, the National Securities and Stock Market Commission (hereinafter referred to as NSSMC) recommended that the educational institutions providing training for stock market specialists and specialists in specialized training programs switch to the distance form training, and in the organization of qualifying exams to take into account the restrictions imposed by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine.

The Kharkiv Center for Scientific, Technical and Economic Information has already moved on to the distance form of education, and in the near future the opportunity to take a distance education will be offered on the basis of the Ukrainian Institute of Stock Market Development of the Kiev National Economic University.

“The process of training under stock market specialist training programs continues, and everyone can go it remotely. We expect that other educational institutions, with which the Commission has contracts, will also introduce a distance form”, – said Maxym Libanov, the Commissioner of the NSSMC.

The introduction of quarantine throughout Ukraine also affects the process of organizing and conducting qualifying examinations of stock market specialists. However, the Procedure of work of examining commissions and holding qualifying examinations of stock market specialists, approved by the NSSMC Resolution No. 62 of 01/01/2013, allows to conduct examinations without violating sanitary-epidemiological restrictions.

Educational establishments planning to hold qualifying exams must comply with the following restrictions:

• there should be no more than 10 persons in one training class, including at least one representative of the certification committee,
• workplaces should be provided at a distance of 1.5 meters from each other.In addition, educational institutions should provide their staff involved in the exam organization with medical masks and disposable gloves, as well as regularly ventilate the premises and clean them with disinfectants.

“Quarantine, of course, imposes certain restrictions and complications in work, but I see no reason to stop the certification process and cause panic. We, at the Commission, congratulate and support in every possible way the actions of educational institutions on the development of online exam software”, – said Maxym Libanov.

According to the information available to the Commission, the situation of compliance with the professional participants of licensing requirements, namely the required number of certified professionals, is not critical. In April 2020, nearly 100 individuals who currently require certification are eligible for professional activity in the stock market.