FAQs

STEP Certificates are open entry qualifications, designed for professionals in the early stages of their career who are looking for an introduction to a specialist topic, or experienced professionals wanting to develop a broader knowledge. All qualifications are standalone and may provide credits towards membership of STEP. These are set at level 4 on the UK qualifications framework.

STEP Advanced Certificates are qualifications with an entry criteria. They are designed for practitioners with more experience and 60 Entry Level credits, who would like to expand their knowledge of a specific subject and/or work towards obtaining a Diploma level qualification. 

The STEP Diploma is for those who wish to complete four STEP Advanced Certificate papers and obtain the knowledge that STEP would require a Full STEP Member to have. 

The STEP Postgraduate Diploma is for experienced practitioners and senior leaders looking to widen their business portfolio and expand their client base, as well as ambitious professionals in the early to mid-stages of their career who aspire to become business leaders and develop their strategic understanding and risk assessment ability.

CPD Learning are open entry courses for those who are looking for on-demand learning which focuses on technical and non-technical subjects across all practice areas.

STEP/CLTI qualifications are recognised, benchmarked qualifications used by regulators and education authorities. 

STEP qualifications are awarded at:
Certificate level (assessed at level 4)
Advanced Certificate and Diploma level (assessed at level 6)
Professional Postgraduate level (assessed at level 7) 

CLTI qualifications are awarded at:
Certificate level (assessed at level 3)
Advanced Certificate and Diploma level (assessed at level 4)

STEP are the awarding body for the STEP qualifications and many of the qualifications are awarded in association with Alliance Manchester Business School, the University of Manchester. 

To find out our course fees, please visit the course finder and select the course you are interested in. The course fee will be displayed there.  

We accept payment in GBP and also HKD and SGD for specific courses.

When enrolling onto the course online, you will be given the option to pay the fee upon the submission of your application. If your employer is funding your studies, you will be given the option for your employer to be invoiced for the fee. Your employer will then have 30 days to make payment upon receipt of the invoice. There are several payment methods available to your employer, such as using the PayNow link provided on the invoice where a card payment can be made, BACS transfer, or payment over the telephone with a card. 

If you are self-funding your studies, you will be able to set up an instalment plan where you can spread the payments over a few months, depending on the course fee. The first payment would be made upon enrolment, and the remaining payments would be automatically taken on the dates specified on your invoice. 

You will have 10 working days after enrolling to change your mind and receive a full refund.  

If you change your mind, please contact our Learning Support team as soon as possible. Please refer to the booking terms and conditions for further details.

There is some flexibility with accepting late enrolment applications and we would accept up to four weeks after the course start date has commenced, provided that no live teaching has taken place. Students would be expected to make up the missed study time. 

You will be able to obtain CPD hours from studying on the courses, for the live teaching sessions attended, and the examination.

If your employer is funding your studies, please select this option on the online enrolment application and provide your employer's name, full address, authoriser's name and email address, as well as the finance contact's name and email address.

Please also provide a purchase order number if this is required by your employer and the VAT registration number. Once enrolled onto the course, the invoice will be sent to the finance contact and they will have 30 days to make payment using any of the various methods detailed on the invoice, such as card payment and BACS transfer. 

The majority of the courses have two sittings per year, starting in January, assessed in May, and starting in July, assessed in November. However, some courses fall outside of these sittings, such as the International Trust Management courses and Postgraduate Diploma.

For more information on the intakes, please go to the webpage for the course that you are interested in and view the course timetables, which will provide the specific dates for that course. 

Please contact STEP directly and they will be pleased to assist you further in paying your STEP membership fees.

In order to become a STEP Student Member, previous formal qualifications are not required. Students just need to be enrolled onto a STEP Certificate qualification and STEP will contact them directly regarding membership within 6-8 weeks after the enrolment application has been processed.

To become a STEP Affiliate, Associate or Full Member, formal qualifications would be required. These qualifications could be prior qualifications, or beginning with STEP Certificates in order to obtain Entry Level credits.

To find out more about STEP Membership visit STEP's Website

Discounts for Full STEP Members are available on a selection of the courses, including all STEP CPD courses, the STEP Certificate in Anti-Money Laundering and a selection of the STEP Advanced Certificate papers, including the Family Business Suite, Advising Vulnerable Clients, Cross-Border Estates and Trust Disputes.

Please see the course webpages that you are interested in to see if a Full STEP Member discount applies.

CLTI and STEP CPD and Certificate courses are open-entry and therefore anyone is eligible to study.

CLTI Certificate in Funds and CLTI Advanced Certificate in Funds are open-entry and therefore anyone is eligible to study.

There is entry criteria for STEP Advanced Certificates, The STEP Diploma and STEP Postgraduate Diploma in Private Wealth Advice. Please visit our entry requirements page to find out more about what qualifications and experience you need in order to study for these qualifications.

An enrolment window is the specific period during where you can enrol onto your chosen course, . Once this window closes, there may be some flexibility in joining the current course but typically you will be referred onto the next cohort. This window ensures that all participants have at least 6 weeks* before the scheduled tuition classes and then examination. 

The phrase "course content can be accessed from"* refers to the date and time when the materials and resources for the course become available to enrolled students. This includes all readings, assignments, discussion boards, and other learning resources. After this date, students can log in to the course platform and start engaging with the material.

*study hours are on the onus of the individual. 

The recommended study time is four to six hours per week for the duration of the course, not including attendance to live teaching.

CLTI Certificate: duration is three months, although students have 12 months' access to the course material, and can sit the examination at any point during this period. 

CLTI Advanced Certificate: duration is four months.

STEP Certificate and Advanced Certificate: duration is four months, with the exception of the STEP Advanced Certificate in Advising Vulnerable Clients, which is six months as delivered as two parts. The final intake for this paper will be the 2024 sitting.  

STEP Postgraduate Diploma: duration is six months. 

Students have five years to complete the STEP Diploma and two years to complete each STEP Advanced Certificate paper. When studying continuously through the papers, students can complete within two years, and when studying multiple papers at a time, this can be even quicker. 

Yes, please email cltinternational@centlaw.com and we will change your registered email address for you.

We strongly recommend you attend all live teaching sessions to maximise your learning experience. If you are unable to attend, a recording of the session will be available on your course page within 24-48 hours.

Yes, you can bring up queries in teaching sessions or send queries via email and they will be passed on. However please note that if you submit queries less than one week before the assessment, a response cannot be guaranteed ahead of the assessment.

Assessments must be submitted in Microsoft Word format as a single document, not a PDF. Any student studying the tax and accountancy exams are allowed to submit a word document and an excel document.

There are many different software options that you can choose from to create a .pdf file. If you have not already got .pdf converter software, you can obtain this free of charge online. We strongly recommend that you organise this prior to your assessment

No, once the assessment paper has been published you cannot defer to a future sitting.if you choose not to attempt the assessment or not submit your answer, you will be awarded a mark of 0 and your next attempt (provided you are within the permitted number) will be classed as a resit.

The word count limit for your assignment is 3,500 words with a maximum of 4,000 words. 

Assignments that are less than 3,000 words are unlikely to contain sufficient details, and candidates are advised to take this into account before they submit. 

Penalties will be applied for exceeding the maximum word count:
* 1% to 50% over the specified word limit – 10% deduction.
* 50% over the specified word limit – the work will not be marked and a mark of zero will be recorded.

The submission portal will be opened once the assignment is published, which is usually two months before the submission deadline.

You can apply to defer to a later sitting. Students are permitted two deferrals for each qualification and must complete the paper within two years of enrolment. Please note that if you defer less than four weeks before an event such as a live teaching session or assessment, a deferral fee would apply.

Unfortunately, we are unable to tell you which questions you scored incorrectly – this is to protect the integrity of the question bank.

A certificate shall be issued to you, both via soft and hard copy within four to six weeks of the result date. When you have completed the STEP Diploma, you will also receive an overall completion certificate which shall be posted within six weeks of the release of your final result.

There is a charge of £50 (+VAT where applicable) for this service. 

You should expect to receive your replacement certificate within approximately 21 working days of your payment (please allow extra time for delivery to an address outside the United Kingdom).

CLTI reserve the right to decline the issue of a replacement certificate. Should your application for a replacement certificate be declined the fee will be refunded in full to the card used for this transaction.

Order your replacement certificate

Please contact STEP directly at step@step.org and they will be pleased to assist you with your request to not show on their directory.

Yes, you will be able to add this provided that your STEP Membership is live.

Please contact STEP directly at step@step.org and they will be pleased to assist you with your request to renew your STEP Membership.

To enrol, please select the webpage of the course that you wish to enrol onto, go to 'Book Course' and select the intake that you wish to enrol onto, add to your cart and then vew your cart. Once happy with the selection, proceed to checkout and create an account to enrol onto the course. Enter your details, how the course will be paid, and submit your application. Within a couple of days you will receive your booking confirmation email with access to the online learning hub, where the course materials will be found by the course start date.

You will receive access to the course page once you have enrolled and the course materials will be live by your course start date for the intake that you have selected.

Exemptions are available for a maximum of two STEP Advanced Certificates studied as part of the STEP Diploma.  

An exemption may be available where you hold a qualification (or qualifications) that correlates very closely in both content and level to the STEP Advanced Certificate from which exemption is sought.

For more information about the criteria for exemptions and the application process, please read our Exemptions Policy.

The fee to apply for an exemption is £200 (plus local applicable taxes). 

To apply for an exemption please get in touch with us by completing the 'I am currently studying' contact form

An academic transcript is an official record of a student's academic progress with CLTI

It will include details of all the units and modules you have taken and your results for each of the assessment elements.

There is a charge of £50 (+ local taxes where applicable) for this service for each programme you are requesting this for. If you require a transcript for more than one programme then you will be charged for each individual qualification.

Request an academic transcript 

You can request proof of your STEP or CLTI qualification and grade. There is a charge of £50 (+VAT where applicable) for this service.

You will also need to complete a consent form when requesting this information.

Request confirmation of my qualification or grade

If you have paid by credit/debit card or by invoice online and selected that you are the person studying, you will be automaically enrolled onto the course and will receive a welcome email with further details.

If you have been booked onto the course by someone else or have booked for several team members, you will need to self-enrol yourself/your colleagues within the learning platform by following the instructions here (you will also receive an email detailing these steps).

To make a complaint please contact us through this form: CLTI Contact us (cltint.com)

A member of staff will be in touch once the form has been received. 

You can review our complaints policy here