UK
How you’d get it

How you’d get this certificate

  1. Zavmo teaches you. You learn the units one-to-one with an AI tutor, on your own work.
  2. You register with an approved centre. That is a college, training provider or employer Kaplan Professional Awards has approved to offer this qualification. Zavmo is not an approved centre, so you register with them, not with us.
  3. The centre assesses, and Kaplan Professional Awards awards. A qualified assessor at the centre judges your evidence, and the certificate comes from Kaplan Professional Awards.

More on studying for a qualification

01What it is

This qualification has been developed with pension practitioners to ensure it meets the needs of the industry. Given the recent legislative changes impacting on pensions, there is more of a requirement than ever for businesses to ensure their employees are equipped with the necessary pension knowledge and practical skills to ensure this crucial process is carried out accurately and efficiently. The qualification structure consists of seven mandatory units. Candidates will study seven key areas related to pensions administration. Assessment of these areas will include written assignments and an exam. Upon successful completion, candidates will achieve a nationally-recognised KPA Level 3 Certificate in Pensions Administration.

These are the units Kaplan Professional Awards registers against this qualification. It is a catalogue, not a syllabus. Which of them you take depends on the combination the qualification requires, and that is set by the awarding body rather than by us. Every unit here is regulated. Zavmo teaches towards them on your own work.

Zavmo is not an awarding body, is not an approved centre, and is not affiliated with Kaplan Professional Awards. It does the teaching and the mapping. Kaplan Professional Awards sets this qualification and awards it, and a qualified human assessor makes the assessment decision.

02The units

What each unit actually teaches you to do

Amend Pension Records to Reflect a Member's Change of Circumstances Real unit · Kaplan Professional Awards
You'll study the regulatory and scheme rules relating to changes in member circumstances, including leaving the scheme before retirement and changes affecting pension and death benefits. The unit develops skills to calculate and communicate these benefits in accordance with regulations.

What you'll be able to do

  • Know the regulatory and scheme rules relating to a member leaving the scheme before retirement.
  • Understand the regulatory and scheme rules relating to various circumstances which impact on pension benefits.
  • Understand the various circumstances dictating the type of death benefits in line with the scheme and regulatory rules.
  • Calculate and communicate pension benefits while using the organisational processes and procedures to meet agreed service levels in line with all requirements.
Creating and Maintaining Pension Scheme Member Records Real unit · Kaplan Professional Awards
This unit provides knowledge of scheme rules and organisational procedures for creating and amending pension scheme member records. You'll learn to complete new member applications accurately, investigate discrepancies, and maintain records in line with data protection requirements.

What you'll be able to do

  • Understand the scheme rules and organisational procedures for creating and amending member pension scheme records.
  • Complete the new member process within the relevant timescales.
  • Investigate and where possible resolve discrepancies in new member applications.
Overview of UK Pension Schemes Real unit · Kaplan Professional Awards
You'll gain an understanding of the various types of UK pensions, including defined benefit and defined contribution schemes, and the role of state pensions. The unit also covers the functions of HMRC, pension regulators, and key stakeholders, alongside reporting requirements to ensure compliance.

What you'll be able to do

  • Know the different types of Pensions available in the UK, including defined benefit, defined contribution, and state pensions.
  • Understand the role of HMRC, the Pension regulators and other key groups and individuals in relation to UK pension schemes, including their responsibilities and powers.
  • Know the annual and triennial requirements HMRC apply to UK pension schemes including the reporting requirements, ensuring compliance with regulatory standards.
Payment of Scheme Benefits to Pensioners Real unit · Kaplan Professional Awards
You'll understand the scheme and regulatory rules governing the data, calculations, and processes involved in setting up and managing a pensioner payroll. The unit covers the requirements for accurate benefit payments to pensioners in compliance with relevant regulations.

What you'll be able to do

  • Understand the scheme and regulatory rules relating to the data required to set up a pensioner payroll database.
  • Understand the scheme and regulatory rules relating to the calculations and processes involved in processing a pensioner payroll.
  • Understand the scheme and regulatory rules for determination of continued payment of pension benefits.
  • Communicate with the pension member in line with scheme, regulatory rules, organisational processes and procedures and service level agreements as required.
Providing Pension Scheme Information Real unit · Kaplan Professional Awards
This unit covers the criteria for membership of UK pension schemes and the eligibility and contribution rules. You'll learn to provide accurate information to potential members and existing members whose circumstances may affect their pension benefits or rights.

What you'll be able to do

  • Know the criteria for membership of UK pension scheme/s, including eligibility requirements and contribution rules.
  • Provide information to potential members of UK pension schemes, explaining the benefits and obligations of membership.
  • Provide information to members where their changing circumstances can impact on their potential pension benefits/rights, such as marriage, divorce, or job loss.
Transferring into and out of Pension Schemes Real unit · Kaplan Professional Awards
You'll gain comprehensive knowledge of regulations and requirements for pension scheme transfers. The unit covers meeting transfer requirements and verifying data to facilitate accurate and compliant pension transfers both into and out of schemes.

What you'll be able to do

  • Understand the regulations and requirements placed on pension schemes when dealing with transfers, including legislative frameworks and industry best practices.
  • Meet all requirements and verify all data to enable pension transfers both into and out of a pension scheme, ensuring accuracy and compliance with relevant regulations.
Working as a Member of the Pensions Team Real unit · Kaplan Professional Awards
It teaches you to work effectively within a pensions team by contributing to team goals, supporting colleagues, and communicating clearly with scheme members. You'll also develop the ability to meet established customer service standards consistently.

What you'll be able to do

  • Work effectively as part of a pensions team, contributing to team goals and supporting colleagues.
  • Understand the importance of clear and timely communication with scheme members, ensuring they are informed and engaged.
  • Consistently meet the customer service standards defined for the pensions team, providing a high level of service to scheme members.
By email

Free, by email

Is this the right qualification for you?

One email to help you decide: the facts, what it teaches and where to start free. With a link back here. Nothing else follows unless you confirm your address.

Your employer, or 'self-employed'

Study the units online with a personal AI tutor, for £70 a month. Your first Future Fluency module is free.

03The standards

The national standards these units are built against

What the job actually needs, in the words employers and awarding bodies already use for the work itself.

  • Co-ordinate and Oversee Contracts with Service Providers

    Standard

  • Facilitate the Scheme’s Strategy and Objectives

    Standard

  • Funding for defined benefit schemes – funding considerations

    Standard

  • Integrity and care – responsibility for personal development

    Standard

  • Integrity and care – running a scheme effectively

    Standard

  • Investment

    Standard

  • Liability management exercises (including enhanced transfer values & pension increase exchange activity)

    Standard

  • Process Pension Scheme Individual Transfers In

    Standard

  • Provide information on request from a pension scheme member or member’s representative

    Standard

  • Provide pension scheme information to relevant bodies

    Standard

  • Provide secretarial services at meetings of the Trustees

    Standard

  • Receive and process new member records

    Standard

  • Set up and manage a pension scheme

    Standard

  • Stewardship and Oversight – Internal Controls

    Standard

  • Stewardship and oversight – professional advice

    Standard

  • The Regulatory Regime

    Standard
Still deciding?

One email to help you decide: the facts, what it teaches and where to start free. With a link back here. Nothing else follows unless you confirm your address.

04The credits

The credits, and who awards them

Level 3 credits are regulated, and they are awarded by Kaplan Professional Awards rather than by Zavmo. They don’t vanish when a subscription ends or a website closes. They travel to any employer, and Zavmo keeps the map of what you have covered and what is next.

What you would be collecting

Amend Pension Records to Reflect a Member's Change of CircumstancesCreating and Maintaining Pension Scheme Member RecordsOverview of UK Pension SchemesPayment of Scheme Benefits to PensionersProviding Pension Scheme InformationTransferring into and out of Pension SchemesWorking as a Member of the Pensions Team

Each one is a real unit registered against this qualification.

How you’d practise it

You don’t watch this. You do it.

You are not assessed on remembering this. You are assessed on applying it, analysing it, evaluating it and producing something. So that is what the practice is: projects, role play and your own live cases, with a tutor in the room.

The Practical Builder The Practical Builder · your make-it-real tutor Illustration
The Practical Builder Paste in the draft you have for “Amend Pension Records to Reflect a Member's Change of Circumstances”. Not a tidied one, the one you would actually send.
You It is mostly there. The recommendations section is thin.
The Practical Builder Thin is fine, vague is not. Take recommendation two and tell me who does what by when, then we will see if it survives.
The same lesson on the real thing: the conversation in the middle, the thinking ladder on the left, and the criteria each answer is evidencing on the right.
  • Draft the real one Create

    You do “Amend Pension Records to Reflect a Member's Change of Circumstances” on a real document of your own. Zavmo works on the draft you have to send anyway, so the coursework and the job are the same piece of work.

  • Lead it Apply

    “Working as a Member of the Pensions Team” is practised on the team you actually have. You talk through the call you are about to make, and Zavmo makes you say it the way you would say it to them.

What you leave holding

The standards this credential builds, in the shape the product keeps them

Nothing here is marked learned. There is no learner on a public page, so the map shows what the qualification covers rather than what anybody has done.

See Your Progress Grow Illustration
KPA Level 3 Certificate in Pensions Administration
  • Co-ordinate and Oversee Contracts with Service Providers
  • Facilitate the Scheme’s Strategy and Objectives
  • Funding for defined benefit schemes – funding considerations
  • Integrity and care – responsibility for personal development
  • Integrity and care – running a scheme effectively
  • Investment
  • Liability management exercises (including enhanced transfer values & pension increase exchange activity)
  • Process Pension Scheme Individual Transfers In
This is your Mind Palace on learn.zavmo.ai. Every skill above comes from this role's own record, not an example borrowed from another job. A node lights up when you evidence it, and what you build stays yours between jobs. That is the part a course cannot do.

How you would learn this

One to one, on the work you already do

A tutor sets the task against your own job and marks the reasoning, at your pace. There is no cohort to fall behind.

A lesson from Amend Pension Records to Reflect a Member's Change of Circumstances, one of this qualification's own units.

Amend Pension Records to Reflect a Member's Change of Circumstances Level 3

Applied to your own work

Learners will study the regulatory and scheme rules relating to changes in member circumstances, including leaving the scheme before retirement and changes affecting pension and death benefits. The unit develops skills to calculate and communicate these benefits in accordance with regulations.

How the thinking builds
  1. 1 Remember
  2. 2 Understand
  3. 3 Apply
  4. 4 Analyse
  5. 5 Evaluate
  6. 6 Create
An illustration of a Zavmo lesson, built from this role’s own route. The unit, its objective and every criterion above are the awarding body’s own words, not an example.

It is £70 a month, billed monthly. Your free first module is Future Fluency, and you can cancel any time. Teaching towards this qualification begins when you subscribe.

Your Plan Illustration

Built for KPA Level 3 Certificate in Pensions Administration

7 units in this credential, in the order it lists them, awarded by Kaplan Professional Awards.

  1. Amend Pension Records to Reflect a Member's Change of Circumstances
  2. Creating and Maintaining Pension Scheme Member Records
  3. Overview of UK Pension Schemes
  4. Payment of Scheme Benefits to Pensioners
  5. Providing Pension Scheme Information
  6. Transferring into and out of Pension Schemes

and 1 more in the full unit list below.

These are the real units of this credential, in its own order. Nothing here is marked done, because this plan has not been started by anyone yet. Yours would fill in as you go.

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The title, level, credits, guided learning hours and unit learning outcomes on this page are taken from the Ofqual Register of Regulated Qualifications. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Where this data comes from.