Rightmove has this morning announced plans for a for a new formal education programme that will give agents free training for an NVQ Level 3 certificate as part of their Rightmove membership.

The new course, which will be regulated by Ofqual, aims to help more agents have easier access to professional training, and help prepare them for mandatory regulations that the government may bring in based on the RoPA Report.

The syllabus will include training for both estate and letting agency including legislation and codes of practice, generating opportunities, delivering exceptional service and property marketing.

Following more than 120 hours of free training, agents will then be able to sit an independently adjudicated exam through awarding organisation ABBE for a fee payable directly to them, to be awarded with the qualification.

Rightmove has been offering training to agents through its market-leading education platform, the Rightmove hub, for the past eight years. The move into more formal qualifications follows the recent introduction of modular training courses on GDPR with David Smith, and skills for selling and closing with Josh Phegan, taken by thousands of agents to count towards their CPD hours.

This week also sees the launch of a new modular training course covering Anti-Money Laundering with Smith, which was the most requested topic from agents. The course is both HMRC compliant for mandatory training and approved for CPD:

Jason Charles, head of events & education at Rightmove, said: This felt like the natural next step for our training, and it’s something that so many agents who attend our webinars have asked for.

“We want to help agents with this free training so they can get ahead of mandatory regulations that the government may bring in based on the RoPA Report. Over the next few months we’ll be working with ABBE to finalise our syllabus and will be launching it later this year.”