Effective and ethical program management is essential to offer the highest quality training for the Mortgage Brokerage Qualification Program (MBQP).

Each applicant must designate a program administrator who will be responsible for ensuring compliance with the principles described below.

• The program administrator must have a minimum of five years of experience in mortgage brokerage, financial services or education.
• This person is responsible for the implementation of all administrative and staffing processes related to pedagogical planning, learning activities and the design of summative assessments. He or she is also responsible for training delivery and evaluation.

The direct input of industry, education, legal and compliance professionals and regulatory bodies must be apparent at every stage of the program development process and in the planning of the training activities offered.

Participants’ personal information must be protected.

• Applicants must implement security measures that comply with applicable laws and regulations to ensure that the personal information they hold is protected. These measures must be documented.

Written procedures for examining participants’ complaints fairly and diligently must be available.

• Written procedures for examining participants’ complaints must be available to anyone who requests them. While these procedures need not be elaborate, they must clearly indicate the steps that will be taken when a complaint is examined. These procedures must be documented.

Applicants must have sufficient financial resources to maintain a viable program.

• Each applicant must sign a statement that it has the financial resources to maintain a viable program.

Applicants must adhere to all standards in all aspects.

The MBQP curriculum forms the basis for successful pedagogical planning and fosters effective learning strategies that ensure that candidates acquire the competencies promoting consumer protection.

Applicants’ programs must be in line with MBQP training curriculum objectives and clearly describe:

• a structured planning that demonstrates the achievement of the MBQP’s stated learning objectives
• the timeframe within which the program should normally be successfully completed
• the rules to be applied when the candidate is not certified within this timeframe

Applicants must include learning strategies (learning activities) that promote the acquisition of competencies and facilitate the integration of those competencies into practice.

• The learning strategies may include exercises, reading other material, responding to case studies, and formative tests (practice exams).
• The time used for these methods must be accounted for when planning the course.

Applicants’ planning includes appropriate safeguards to prevent academic fraud and cheating.

• Applicants must require candidates to attest that they are not engaging in activities that could facilitate cheating.
• Applicants must adopt a zero tolerance policy for academic fraud which addresses the consequences of fraud that also includes a definition of what would constitute fraud.
• Applicants must adopt a code of conduct and require candidates to read and follow the code they have in place. Codes of conduct must include the standards for academic integrity and honesty.

Effective and ethical program delivery is decisive for candidates’ achievement and consumer protection.

Applicants must apply fraud prevention measures.

• Whether the training is delivered in-class or on-line, applicants must ensure that access to course materials is provided to candidates with a valid AMF client number and whose identity is verified and authenticated with an official government photo ID. A copy of the proof of identity must be kept in the candidate’s file for validation purposes. Applicants must record the following information:
• Candidate’s first and last name
• Date of verification
• Type of document
• Document number
• Issuing province
• Expiry date
• AMF client number
• Candidates are required to read and attest a code of conduct.
• Candidates must be encouraged to report any conduct that would compromise the integrity of the MBQP.
• Whether the training is delivered in-class or on-line, applicants must set conditions that are conducive to learning.
• For in-class programs: proper noise levels, lighting, adequate heating/air conditioning and appropriate workspace that are favourable for learning.
• For on-line programs, the learning environment review includes the following factors: design, colours, ease of use, readability, on-line help and user support.

Applicants must select teachers/instructors/lecturers/trainers with expertise in the program content and who are qualified to teach the program.

• Applicants must make the qualifications required to teach courses available.
• Qualifications include industry experience, licencing and certification, education, language and teaching experience.
• The standing of teachers/instructors/lecturers/trainers with the various regulatory organizations must be assessed.
• regulatory organizations must be assessed. Applicants must present the list of teachers/instructors/lecturers/trainers to their regulatory body to ensure that they are in good standing.

When the program is available in different languages, applicants must ensure that the quality of the program is the same regardless of the language used.

• There must be no difference in qualifications for teachers, instructors, lecturers and trainers.
• When the applicant makes its program available in different languages, the quality of the training material must be the same.
• Efforts must be made to use certified translators and revisers.

If there is no undue hardship, applicants must make their program accessible to individuals with disabilities.

Applicants must have sufficient means to support learning.

• Applicants must provide quality support to participants and ensure that they have sufficient staff to offer such support for the number of participants registered.

Applicants must have policies to ensure that teaching staff:

• follow the developed course plans
• not teach exam questions to candidates
• not promote or take part in an activity that could compromise the MBQP qualification exams

Certification is based on a valid, reliable and fair assessment (testing) that the level of learning required by the candidate was achieved. This level of learning must be sufficient to pass the qualification exams that lead to the mortgage broker certificate.

Certification exam development

Certification exams are developed by industry professionals.

• Education professionals can assist in this development to make sure that the process ensures adequate content validity, construct validity and exam reliability.

The certification exam development process must be fully described and documented.

Certification exams must be of sufficient depth to adequately determine the level of learning that was achieved.

The security and confidentiality of certification exams must be assured during all phases of exam development. Only persons with a legitimate need for access to exam materials will be able to obtain such access before and after administration of the exams.

Applicants must implement controls for the development of certification exams:

• Item banks are separate from other assessments.
• Certification exams must have a sufficiently large pool of questions to prevent compromise.
• Item banks are of a sufficient number and versions to prevent compromise.
• Only AMF exam preparation materials and manuals will be allowed for reference during the certification exams.
• Exams must be time limited.

Certification exam administration

Exams in a paper format must be stored in a secure location to which access is limited.

Exams must be administered only to candidates who are deemed to have a satisfactory level of learning of the MBQP.

Exam administrative procedures must be standardized and documented.

Candidate identification and authentication procedures must be documented and applied.

• For in-class exams and supervised computerized exam centres, candidates’ identity must be validated with an official picture ID. Registered candidates with no official ID will not be given access to exam rooms.
• For on-line exams, candidates’ identity will be validated against the ID in their file before access to certification exams is authorized.

Candidates must attest a code of conduct and agree as follows:

• Prior to beginning an exam, candidates should state that cheating is prohibited and be required to state that they are not engaging in activities that could facilitate cheating.
• This statement should contain the following elements:

Applicants must document any change or disruption to exam administrative procedures. This includes changes made to accommodate the incapacities of certain exam participants and disruptions to the exam environment that may affect all exam participants.

Certification exams must be supervised.

• Procedures for in-class and on-line supervision must be standardized and documented to ensure security and fairness. These include the introduction of policies regarding:
  • use of electronic equipment
  • use of washrooms
  • exam room configuration, assigned seating and the appropriate space between seats
  • continuous monitoring
• When remote supervision is used, it must include effective technology to limit collusion and fraud. Remote supervision procedures must be described and documented.

Different versions of a single exam are to be assigned for candidates who are part of a common group or corporate client.

For an exam retake, a different version must be offered to the candidate who has failed an initial exam.

Certification exam versions must be rotated on a regular basis.

The number of exam attempts must be limited to four. After a failed fourth attempt, the candidate must retake the course.

Time between exam attempts should be reasonable to avoid compromising the certification exams.

• Time between exam attempts is based on the size of the certification item bank.

Feedback on exams must not allow or facilitate the compromise of exams.

Quality training and continuous improvement are based on effective program evaluation.

Applicants must obtain participants’ evaluation as to how well each learning objective was achieved.

Applicants must assess participants’ satisfaction.

Applicants must use certification exams and licensing results to infer participant learning.

Applicants will use the results of the evaluation process to improve their training on an ongoing basis.

Applicants must document the evaluation program and the actions taken in response to the evaluations.