All Other Questions

 

How does our 30 day risk-free guarantee work?
If you aren't super happy with Ethica's training and decide to cancel within 30 days of enrollment your entire course fee gets refunded. No questions asked.

Refunds are not granted to students who have attempted the CIFE™ or the ACIFE™ examination irrespective of whether they have passed or failed. Refunds will be made by wire transfer to your bank and transfer charges will be deducted from the total amount.

How long is a module?
About 17 to 23 minutes.

Will I be required to attend live training sessions?
There are no live sessions for the CIFE™ program, which is 100% self-study.

However, the Advanced CIFE™ in Islamic Accounting is tougher and warrants live expert instruction. For this reason we bring to you Ethica's Advanced CIFE™ MasterClass with an Islamic accounting expert, which is held once a month during the study period (i.e. a total of 4-6 live sessions). Students are expected to self-study 2 modules ahead of the live session and send in their questions in advance. The students then join a live webinar with our expert on the scheduled date and time where our expert not only exposits on the pre-received questions but also discusses case studies, walk through exercises, screen-shares balance sheets and other ancillary material that might be relevant for the topic being covered. A forum is also made available for pre and post webinar discussions with the expert.

Why are you offering an online program instead of just sending out a course book?
The convenience, reliability and efficiency of online delivery is unsurpassed. The Internet has changed everything. People prefer to get more and more information, even university education and bank training, from the Internet. And because many people see an ongoing online program as more effective than a two or three day crash course, corporates are more likely to opt for a blended program, containing both in-class instruction and e-learning. Listen to Salman Khan and Bill Gates in this video to understand this new generation gap, especially the first 5 minutes when he explains how his young cousins preferred e-learning to face-to-face tutoring: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gM95HHI4gLk. So we think that not only is e-learning more cost-effective, it's more *educationally* effective. Some things are better done face-to-face (ie. inspiration, ethics, conveying spatially complex concepts, etc.), but for pure information transfer, nothing matches e-learning for rapid and scalable delivery.

So you are saying I don't need to download and print any material, I will not receive any material by post and I am not expected to buy any books?
Absolutely. In general, Ethica's 100% online delivery platform enables us to give you dynamic and up-to-date material 24 hours a day, rather than waiting around for outdated guidebooks, CDs, and distance learning emails. Our training and certification is designed for maximum knowledge transfer without burdening you with more information than you require, so we do not have downloads and PDFs. All the information, including spreadsheets, case studies, questions, exercises, and quizzes is contained in the training modules.

We recommend that our users do two things:

1. The only text one will need after completing the program is the Shariah Standards of the Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI). This should be one's primary source for constant review and periodic consultation.
2. New content is added on a regular basis. Should your 4 month tenure expire, you can always renew your subscription at subsidized rates.

While you prepare yourself for the CIFE™ you have access to largest database of Islamic finance Q&As available online - at your fingertips. Search over 800 scholar-approved answers to your practical questions here: PLUS our experts are here to answer your questions over email. Just email questions@ethicainstitute.com and one of our experts will respond to you as soon as possible.

Which scholars support your company?
In our ongoing effort to promote industry-wide standards, we rely on the opinions of scholars who are knowledgeable in the Accounting and Auditing Organization of Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI) Shariah Standards.

Who recognizes and accredits Ethica's certification?
In Islamic finance, the final word comes from recognized Islamic finance scholars. Sheikh Yusuf Talal Delorenzo (AAOIFI Board Member, ISRA, dozens of Shariah boards), Mufti Zubair Usmani (Muslim Commercial Bank, Pak-Qatar Takaful, ICAP, and others) and Tariq Bujasaim (ex-Dubai Bank), our accrediting scholars, are well versed in AAOIFI (Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions) Shariah Standards, the world's leading and most widely accepted Shariah standards for the Islamic finance industry, and acknowledge that our CIFE™ examination conforms to the latest AAOIFI Shariah Standards. Their bios can be found here. In terms of Islamic finance training and certification, Ethica is a ground-breaking initiative. To date, no training institute has ever explicitly claimed to follow a standardization policy based on a known and accepted global standard and instead have followed general standards that no third-party can check against. To avoid conflict of interest lest we be seen as promoting AAOIFI, we abide by a strict policy of using only third-party accreditation from approved scholars and organizations. Our current partnerships with organizations like Banker's Academy, Zawya, Mashreq Bank, IQPC, and La Trobe University, to name a few approved third-party organizations, underscores this policy.

The CIFE™ is approved by the highest standard in Islamic finance: leading scholars accrediting that the CIFE™ is 100% AAOIFI compliant. AAOIFI, or the Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions, is the leading standard setting body in the Islamic finance industry. No other certificate in Islamic finance currently offers this level of accreditation and we are proud to say that no other certificate is 100% AAOIFI compliant. This is what will eventually help you get jobs and promotions in this industry. We are a UAE registered company and have students in over 44 countries from over 100 institutions. The CIFE™ is approved by banks and is in fact offered as an accredited university credit course by La Trobe University in Australia. In 2011, Ethica will have served over 20,000 students around the world, more than any other Islamic finance training institution in the world.

What do you mean by third-party accredited?
Third-party means that a body other than the main two parties (ie. Ethica, the party providing the certificate, and AAOIFI, the party providing the standard) is providing the accreditation. All recognized certifications are third-party accredited. In order for any institution’s certification to be fully credible, the accrediting body should be a third-party, not the institution providing the certification itself. That is why we have chosen Islamic finance scholars, the leading authorities in the field of Islamic finance, to accredit that we are following AAOIFI, the leading standard-setting body in the field of Islamic finance. To our knowledge, this is the first time that a globally-recognized Islamic finance certificate has obtained third-party accreditation that it is following AAOFI latest Shariah standards.

Why Is Standardization Important?
We believe that following the most widely accepted Islamic finance standard in the world, AAOIFI, leads to greater transparency, governance, and convergence. And this is why fatwas are so all-important in Islamic finance. Fatwas are expert legal opinions from Islamic scholars qualified to adjudicate on a particular matter. In Islamic finance, a non-scholar is not permitted to give a fatwa. AAOIFI's Shariah Board, on the other hand, has 18 scholars from all over the world, all of whom are legally qualified to issue fatwas in Islamic finance. One of these AAOIFI scholars, Shaykh Yusuf Talal DeLorenzo, is one of Ethica's Shariah Advisors. Like the rest of the industry, Ethica's accreditation comes from scholars, not from academic bodies. To learn more about this subject you can read our article “FIQH OR FICTION - Why Islamic Finance Needs Standardized Training” here.

What job opportunities do I have after Ethica's certification?
Ethica Institute's graduates perform better at Islamic banking jobs because courses available at EthicaInstitute.com find their roots in the cut-and-thrust of banking execution. With Ethica you bring knowledge to the table and demonstrate confidence in your interviews.

We do not have a recruitment wing. However, we do offer two services which no other Islamic finance trainer offers. At Ethica, we passionately believe that our relationship continues far beyond your certification. The point of the Ethica CIFE™ isn't a piece of paper; it's the knowledge, recognition, and transformative effect that piece of paper should have on your career. That's why we created Ethica's Recruiter Database™ and Ethica's 1-on-1 Career Counseling™.

1. Ethica's Recruiter Database™: Fast track your CV to hundreds of recruiters. As part of your certification, you become eligible to join Ethica's Recruiter Database™. We personally recommend you to banks and recruiters with your CV. When your resume reads 'Ethica CIFE™ Graduate,' recruiters know that you bring more Islamic finance know-how to the job than most around.
2. Ethica's 1-on-1 Career Counseling™: Get Ethica's unlimited 1-on-1 Career Counseling™. A privilege reserved ONLY for successful Ethica's CIFE™ graduates where an Islamic finance expert coaches you on how best to position yourself in the Islamic finance market. You speak in private for as long as you want with a leading subject matter expert to determine your best options

Why is Ethica Institute better than face-to-face training and in-house training?

1. You Know What You're Getting: It's difficult to monitor what the trainer is teaching in a face-to-face or in-house environment. At Ethica Institute, we hold ourselves to well-known standard that anyone is able to check.
2. Anytime, Anywhere: Online training allows users to learn on their own time at their own pace, not during the most productive hours of the day.
3. Cost-Effective: Using expensive consultants and pulling busy staff away from work to train junior staff is the old way of doing things. Online training saves you hundreds of thousands of dollars.

How does Ethica help the poor?
Poverty is a symptom of the root problem, and we believe one root problem is compounded interest. We hope to give people the tools to: 1) remove interest; and 2) implement alternatives. Islamic finance is still in its infancy and much progress still needs to be made but the proven principles of equity-based and asset and service-backed finance remain equally compelling.

How do you protect against theft?
We aim to provide a complete community experience in which multiple complementary learning channels, not to mention certification, are not obtainable by mere copying. Even so, we handle copyright infringement by incorporating a sophisticated back-end (data rights management) infrastructure that brings world class security to our website for easy fraud detection. Moreover, our members are everywhere, and when other trainers' content begins to look suspiciously like ours, we use our team of legal advisors to pursue offenders to the full extent of international law. We take the following measures:

1. 24 hour back end visibility: A blogger once accessed our modules in an unusual way. We saw all the activity in the back end. When we asked him about it, he provided a satisfactory explanation so we did not report him.
2. Informants: We have fans in over 100 banks. They tell us everything.
3. More than slides: Each slide requires painstaking coordination of numerous things and expertise in e-learning far beyond the slide itself. If I copy all of Ahmed's PPTs, I'm still missing Ahmed. You don't have to go very far to find boring e-learning so even if the slides are copied, the execution can't be.
4. Thieves are lazy: People who steal tend to be sloppy. Even when they try to be slick, eventually mistakes are made and are found out using IP addresses and old fashioned Google searches of similar sounding copy.
5. International law: Only once we have had to resort to legal action when we found a copycat in Malaysia. Our response was swift, furious, and backed by a fleet of internationally-trained lawyers. The guy backed off within 24 hours.

Can I use Ethica's training modules to train others?
You may use Ethica's training modules to train others only if you have a licensing agreement with us beforehand. If not, you would be subject to international copyright infringement laws. Since we are able to detect back-end activity and streaming frequency, we know when existing memberships get abused. For instance, if a bank buys 5 memberships and uses it to train 30 employees. Email us at contact@ethicainstitute.com to get started with your licensing agreement.

I'm still at school. Does Ethica's certification make sense for me at this stage?
The CIFE™ and Advanced CIFE™ certifications are independent of other certifications and designations, both in terms of the content itself and the market perception. This is because the principles and products used in Islamic finance in general and Islamic accounting in particular are separate and distinct. We usually recommend that people get an early start on their Islamic finance knowledge and certification so that they see conventional products through the lense of Islamic finance rather than seeing Islamic finance products through the lense of conventional products which often hinders one's understanding of Islamic finance at later stages.

Would you be able to confirm if we will be taught the derivation of these Islamic products?
Ethica's focus is on preparing individuals for Islamic finance. In order to do this effectively, we focus students on the practical aspects of how Islamic finance should be executed in the real world. There is little information imparted on the legal derivations of the products as they came from the time of the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) and the traditional schools of jurisprudence as the evidences necessary for ijtihad are of interest to Islamic finance scholars who specialize in this area rather than bankers. For this, we recommend that while you are doing your CIFE™, after studying each product, you read the appendix for that product in AAOIFI's Shariah Standards. This appendix goes into details about the original evidence underpinning each product.