• Anyone working in specific technical claims handling or underwriting roles within a call or service centre environment.
• Insurance staff employed in support functions such as human resources, marketing, IT and finance, wishing to develop an understanding of the industry in which they work.
• Staff working for an organisation whose primary business is not insurance, but which offers insurance advice and products as part of its overall service to customers.
• Apprentices undertaking the Level 3 Advanced Apprenticeship in Providing Financial Services or the Level 3 Insurance Practitioner Apprenticeship.

Before starting study, check to see whether any of your previous academic qualifications or credits from other professional bodies and institutes can be carried towards completion of the Certificate.

Find out more about recognition of prior learning

Specific study time guidelines are provided for each unit on its webpage and in the CII qualifications brochure. The notional Ofqual ‘Total Qualification Time’ for this qualification is 160 hours. This represents the time a student might typically take to complete the qualification by the shortest combination of units. The number of hours may increase dependent on the units chosen, varying from 160–200 hours.

Certificate level units are a assessed by multiple choice question (MCQ) exams. For online MCQ exams, results notification is immediate on completion. For paper-based MCQ exams, results are released five weeks' following the exam sitting.

Find out more about assessment, including policies and centres

Qualification units are delivered through purchasing an Enrolment, equipping you with the essential materials to support core learning. For a single fee, an Enrolment typically includes: study text, assessment and access to RevisionMate, our online study tool. 

We also offer additional revision aids through purchasing Enrolment plus for most key units. These range from Key fact booklets and Question packs, to Learn online tutorials.

The Certificate comprises compulsory units and option units, requiring a minimum of 40 CII credits for successful completion. There is no prescribed order in which units must be taken, but it is strongly recommended that you sit the required compulsory unit(s) first as these provide foundation knowledge upon which the others build.  

Candidates can select to take either one of the following compulsory units: 

• Insurance, Legal and Regulatory (IF1) – 15 CII credits; OR
• Award in General Insurance (Non-UK) (W01)* - 15 CII credits; OR
• Award in General Insurance (Hong Kong) (WH1)** - 15 CII credits

Or both of the following units: 

• London Market Insurance Essentials (LM1) – 10 CII credits.  
• London Market Insurance Principles and Practices (LM2) – 15 CII credits. 

*W01 is also available in Arabic (unit W02)

** WH1 is also available in Traditional Chinese (HGT)

Then choose from the available optional units to achieve a total of 40 CII credits (including your compulsory unit(s)): 

• General Insurance Business (IF2) – 15 CII credits. 
• Insurance Underwriting Process (IF3) – 15 CII credits. 
• Insurance Claims Handling Process (IF4) - 15 CII credits. 
• Motor Insurance Products (IF5) - 15 CII credits. 
• Household Insurance Products (IF6) - 15 CII credits. 
• Healthcare Insurance Products (IF7) - 15 CII credits. 
• Packaged Commercial Insurances (IF8) - 15 CII credits. 
• Customer Service in Insurance (IF9) - 15 CII credits. 
• Insurance Broking Fundamentals (I10) - 15 CII credits. 
• Introduction to Risk Management (I11) - 15 CII credits. 
• Group risk (GR1) – 10 CII credits. 
• Financial Protection (R05) – 10 CII credits. 
• London Market Underwriting Principles (LM3) - 15 CII credits. 
• Insurance Claims Handling (non-UK) (WCE) - 15 CII credits.*
• Insurance Underwriting (non-UK) (WUE) - 15 CII credits.** 
• Units from Diploma and Advanced Diploma in Insurance – 5-50 credits. 

*WCE is also available in Arabic (WCA) and Traditional Chinese (WCT). 15 CII credits will only be available for passing one of these units.

**WUE is also available in Arabic (WUA) and Traditional Chinese (WUT). 15 CII credits will only be available for passing one of these units.

Please note that you can only count the CII credits from one of the following units IF1/LM1/Award in General Insurance (W01). This is due to significant syllabus overlap. If you take LM1 – 3 you will instead gain the more specialised CII Level 3 Certificate in London Market Insurance rather than the Certificate in Insurance.  

Due to the extent of syllabus overlap, certain combinations of current and withdrawn units will result in only one award of credits.

If a withdrawn equivalent is held you may not need to complete a current unit in order to satisfy a qualification's completion rules. Clarification should always be sought from CII Customer Service.

Find out more about credit awards for equivalent units