Circl Academy Course Catalogue

Status: v1.0 draft. The catalogue indexes the four certifications operated by Circl Academy. Three of the four are paid (with scholarship eligibility for jurisdictional currency disparity); the Foundation Certification is free and open to every Member.

The certification ladder

The platform's Treasurer profession progresses through five tiers (Community Builder → Community Organiser → Community Leader → Community Architect → Circlworld Ambassador). Three of the four tier transitions are gated by certification:

                Tier 1 ─── Foundation Certification ─── Tier 0 / All Members
   Community Builder       (free, open to everyone)
        ↓
   Intermediate Certification  (£25, Tier 1 → Tier 2)
        ↓
   Tier 2 — Community Organiser
        ↓
   (18 months service + clean Standing)
        ↓
   Tier 3 — Community Leader
        ↓
   Advanced Certification  (£150, Tier 3 → Tier 4)
        ↓
   Tier 4 — Community Architect
        ↓
   Multi-Jurisdictional Certification  (£400, Tier 4 → Tier 5)
        ↓
   Tier 5 — Circlworld Ambassador

The Foundation Certification is the entry to the ladder. Tier 1 (Community Builder, probationary) is open to any Member who has passed Foundation and meets KYC + Standing thresholds. Tier 1 → Tier 2 transition requires the Intermediate Certification. Tier 3 → Tier 4 requires the Advanced. Tier 4 → Tier 5 requires the Multi-Jurisdictional.

The four courses

1. Foundation Certification

| Field | Value | | --- | --- | | Slug | course-foundation | | Audience | Every Member | | Fee | Free | | Format | Self-paced; ~6 hours | | Modules | 6 | | Assessment | 30 MCQs | | Pass mark | 24 / 30 (80%) | | Time limit | 60 minutes | | Retake | After 7 days; unlimited; no fee | | Valid for | Lifetime | | Recognition | Foundation badge; Community Participation log |

2. Intermediate Treasurer Certification

| Field | Value | | --- | --- | | Slug | course-treasurer-intermediate | | Audience | Tier 1 Treasurers seeking Tier 2 progression | | Fee | £25 (scholarship-eligible) | | Format | Self-paced; ~16 hours | | Modules | 8 | | Assessment | 50 MCQs + 1 case-study | | Pass mark | 42 / 50 MCQs (84%) + case-study Satisfactory | | Time limit | 90 minutes MCQ; 30 minutes case-study | | Retake | After 30 days; £15; max 3 in 12 months | | Valid for | 36 months | | Prerequisite | Foundation + 9 months Tier 1 + clean Standing | | Recognition | Intermediate badge; Tier 2 eligibility |

3. Advanced Treasurer Certification

| Field | Value | | --- | --- | | Slug | course-treasurer-advanced | | Audience | Tier 3 Treasurers seeking Tier 4 progression | | Fee | £150 (scholarship-eligible) | | Format | Self-paced + 4 live online seminars; ~32 hours | | Modules | 6 | | Assessment | 60 MCQs + 2 case-studies + Selection-Committee simulation | | Pass mark | 53 / 60 MCQs (88%) + both case-studies Satisfactory + simulation Satisfactory | | Time limit | 120 min MCQ; 60 min/case; 90 min simulation | | Retake | After 60 days; £80; max 2 in 12 months | | Valid for | 30 months | | Prerequisite | Intermediate + 18 months Tier 3 + clean Standing | | Recognition | Advanced badge; Tier 4 eligibility; Selection Committee + Council eligibility |

4. Multi-Jurisdictional Treasurer Certification

| Field | Value | | --- | --- | | Slug | course-treasurer-multi-jurisdictional | | Audience | Tier 4 Treasurers seeking Tier 5 progression | | Fee | £400 (scholarship-eligible — full cover at Tier 5) | | Format | 12-week live cohort programme; ~80 hours | | Modules | 8 | | Assessment | 80 MCQs + 3 case-studies + regulatory simulation + oral exam | | Pass mark | 72 / 80 MCQs (90%) + all case-studies Satisfactory + simulation Satisfactory + oral Satisfactory | | Time limit | 150 min MCQ; 90 min/case; 2 hr simulation; 45 min oral | | Retake | After 12 months; £220; max 2 in 36 months | | Valid for | 24 months | | Prerequisite | Advanced + 24 months Tier 4 + 2 Council recommendations + clean Standing | | Recognition | Multi-Jurisdictional badge; Tier 5 eligibility; Council delegation eligibility; independent Chair eligibility |

Pedagogy Council

The Pedagogy Council is the governance body that maintains course quality:

Membership

• Two Treasurer Council Members. Currently-serving, elected for the Pedagogy Council role (separate election from the Council's general election).
• One Member representative. Nominated by Town Hall, serves 18-month term.
• One subject-matter advisor. Drawn from a panel of experienced practitioners (Pardna, Susu, Chama, etc. tradition holders); rotating.
• One independent Chair. Drawn from the Help Office's senior education panel.

Mandate

• Annual review of each course's content, MCQ bank, and assessment rigour.
• Approval of MCQ bank refreshes (every 12 months as standard).
• Quality assurance on the case-study grader rubrics.
• Approval of cohort programme adjustments.
• Annual public report on certification outcomes (pass rates, retake rates, grade distributions, scholarship awards, demographic patterns).

Standards

The Pedagogy Council operates under transparency. Pass rates by tier are published. Retake rates are published. Grade distributions are published. The Council does not adjust pass marks to meet target distributions — the standards are set on competence requirements, not on outcome curves.

Full Charter

The Pedagogy Council Charter v1.0 documents the Council's composition, mandate, procedure, relationship to other governance bodies, term lengths, compensation framework, and amendment procedure in full. Read the Pedagogy Council Charter.

Fee structure and Scholarship Pool

Fee schedule

Foundation is free. The three paid courses are £25, £150, £400 respectively.

In jurisdictions where the absolute fee creates a 5% or greater proportional barrier (measured against the Treasurer's tier's average TEP fees in that jurisdiction), the Scholarship Pool is available.

Scholarship Pool

The Certification Scholarship Pool Operating Procedure v1.0 governs the application, eligibility, and award process. Awarded by a three-person panel (one peer-Treasurer + one Member + Help Office Pool Administrator). Covers the first-attempt fee in full.

TEP-deduction option

A Treasurer at any tier may elect to have the certification fee deducted from their next accrued TEP fee. The election is recorded in the Treasurer's TEP fee statement.

Pedagogy principles

What we teach

• The constitutional documents (Custody Framework, Code of Conduct, TEP, Agreement, Council, Committee, Scholarship Pool) and their interpretation in practice.
• The fiduciary and ethical practice of community-savings Treasurer work.
• The custody architecture in operation.
• The Lending Center architecture and the Treasurer's role.
• The Dispute Settlement Centre interface.
• The Wellbeing Centre interface.
• The Member Activity Record discipline.
• At higher tiers: regulatory awareness across operating jurisdictions, federation-level practice, regulator engagement, senior-practitioner external representation.

What we don't teach

• We do not teach "engagement maximisation" — engagement is not a Treasurer skill.
• We do not teach platform-fee extraction strategies — the platform's economic posture is given and Treasurers operate honestly within it.
• We do not teach Member-fund custody beyond the Custody Framework (Treasurers are not asked to design custody architectures beyond the Framework).
• We do not teach financial advice (Members get financial advice from independent financial advisers, not Treasurers).
• We do not teach AI-prompting "optimisation" (CirclAI's Member-facing rules are what Treasurers operate by; gaming the AI is not a profession skill).

How we teach

• Case-study-heavy. Every Module includes practitioner scenarios.
• Mentor-paired (at Intermediate+). The Treasurer Council pairs every Tier 1 → Tier 2 candidate with a senior mentor.
• Peer-learning (Multi-Jurisdictional only). The 12-week cohort is the irreplaceable peer-learning environment for Tier 5.
• Open MCQ bank. The sample MCQ banks in each course document are the public view; the live MCQ bank is larger, refreshed annually, and randomised per attempt.

Continuing development

After certification:

• Foundation: Lifetime validity; refresh recommended every 3 years (not required).
• Intermediate: 36-month validity; re-examination to refresh.
• Advanced: 30-month validity; re-examination OR 30 CPD credits.
• Multi-Jurisdictional: 24-month validity; re-examination OR 50 CPD credits.

CPD credits come from Council service, Selection Committee panel service, mentoring, specialty seminars, and the published practitioner writing in the Council newsletter.

Recognition and verification

Each certification is recorded as a SHA-256-signed certification entry on the Member's record. Verification surfaces are available at /verify/cert/[id]. The certifications appear in:

• The Member's private Registrar (Layer 1).
• The Member's circle-visible record (Layer 2).
• Any Shared Trust Report the Member elects to issue (Layer 3, configurable).
• The Member's public Treasurer Profile (if the Treasurer elects public visibility).

Cross-references

• Foundation Certification course document.
• Intermediate Treasurer Certification course document.
• Advanced Treasurer Certification course document.
• Multi-Jurisdictional Treasurer Certification course document.
• Treasurer Council Charter v1.0 (mentor scheme; CPD-credit recognition).
• Selection Committee Charter v1.0 (procedural standards).
• Certification Scholarship Pool Operating Procedure v1.0.
• TEP Methodology v1.0 + v2 Amendment Rider (certification fee schedule, TEP-deduction option).
• Treasurer Agreement v2 Amendment Rider (cross-references).
• Treasurer Code of Conduct v1.0 (re-signed at every tier).
• Custody Framework Charter v1.0 (Module 1 source at every tier).

— End of the Circl Academy Course Catalogue —

Version history

| Version | Date | Change | Process | |---|---|---|---| | v1.0 | 2026-06-03 | Initial draft | Drafted 2026-06-03; counsel + Pedagogy Council review required before publication |

Plain-language one-line summary

Four certifications — Foundation (free) and three Treasurer ladder courses (£25 / £150 / £400, all scholarship-eligible) — governed by a Pedagogy Council that maintains course quality, publishes outcomes transparently, and refreshes content annually.