Neil Taylor had a very productive and positive meeting with the senior management of the IPA this morning (Friday 4 December), discussing the action taken so far in investigating the causes of and fallout from the software and invigilation failures of the CPI exam on Friday 20 November.
The IPA completely understands the seriousness of the issues caused by the breakdown of ICSA’s software on that date, and accept that this was due to problems caused by still maturing technology which they would never had chosen to rely upon for that sitting had it not been for the pressures introduced by Covid-19 and its many complications. They expressed serious regret for the issues and, once again, apologised unreservedly for the effects of them.
The serious problems that day were caused by updates on Google Chrome, together with human error, action having already been taken to ensure that the latter will never be repeated. In all it appears that 36 students were affected, but if any candidate who took that exam, having been trained by NTI, any other tutorial provider, or who did not have any support prior to the exam please contact Neil at NTI (nt@nti.co.uk) as soon as possible, to enable their case to be examined in depth, with the appropriate remedies being applied should it be necessary to do so.
ICSA (the provider of the software and invigilators for the exam) are forensically investigating the matter, using all the information provided to both NTI and the IPA to date, in order to categorise and quantify the extent of the failures on 20 November and have so far been very responsive and willing to engage with the IPA on all matters. They are watching the videos recorded from candidates’ equipment on the day to assess the full extent of the problems caused and fully assessing the minutiae of the complaints raised.
It is only once these investigations are complete that the IPA will make a decision about how future exams, notably the sitting in June 2021, will be located, and every option remains on the table.
Meanwhile, the examiner said that he hopes to be able to publish the result of the November sitting on 29 January 2021, but if that timetable becomes too tight, due to papers having to be very carefully marked and scores adjusted for equitable reasons he will give NTI plenty of warning and we will, of course, pass this information immediately on to our students.
NTI and the IPA share the same overall objective; this is to provide first class training and a properly written and set exam to help develop the next generation of insolvency professionals, who are holistically educated and rigorously regulated.
