FSA Credential Level I study plan

Map the architecture of IFRS S1 and S2: state the objective, scope, core content pillars (governance, strategy, risk management, metrics and targets), and reporting boundaries, and explain how S2 builds on S1

Distinguish the concepts of enterprise value, materiality for sustainability disclosure, and connected information, and explain why the ISSB settled on enterprise-value materiality rather than double materiality

Identify the four TCFD-aligned pillars as embedded in S1 and S2 and explain how the ISSB absorbed TCFD and SASB material into its standards

Explain the role of the ISSB, its relationship to the IFRS Foundation and IOSCO endorsement, and the jurisdictional-adoption model (adoption, adaptation, or use of the standards)

Work through IFRS S2's climate-specific requirements: scope 1, 2, and 3 GHG measurement, the GHG Protocol basis, and the treatment of financed emissions and facilitated emissions

Explain the industry-based guidance approach in S2, including how an entity identifies applicable industry metrics and why industry classification matters

Describe the climate resilience assessment requirement: scenario analysis, use of at least one climate scenario, and how resilience findings feed the strategy disclosure

Explain transition-plan disclosure: targets, use of carbon credits, and how progress against targets is reported

Distinguish required disclosures from those subject to the 'commercially sensitive' relief and the proportionality and transition reliefs available to entities

Apply IFRS S1's general requirements: fair presentation, materiality, reporting entity, connected information, comparative information, and the frequency and timing of reporting

Explain the sources of guidance hierarchy in S1 (ISSB standards, SASB standards, other investor-focused frameworks, and the rebuttable presumption around industry practice)

Describe the reliefs in S1, including the climate-first transition relief, the deferral of Scope 3 and financed emissions reporting, and the use of reasonable and supportable information without undue cost or effort

Explain how an entity judges and discloses materiality for sustainability matters and how it applies judgement when data is unavailable

Explain the SASB Standards' purpose, governance history, and current status as industry-based guidance referenced by IFRS S1 and S2

Describe how SASB's 77-industry taxonomy is organised across 11 sectors and how an entity selects the applicable industry standard

Identify the structure of a SASB disclosure topic: topic name, issue, code, accounting metrics, and technical protocol

Explain the characteristics of SASB metrics (fair representation, usefulness, applicability across companies, neutrality, verifiability, comparability, completeness) and how they differ from financial metrics

Practise selecting and interpreting metrics for one sector from memory of the framework's logic, without relying on the published text

Explain how SASB industry metrics connect to IFRS S2 industry-based guidance and where the two differ in framing and requirement level

Describe the integrated reporting framework's core concepts: the six capitals, value creation over time, the business model, and the resources-and-relationships inputs, activities, outputs, and outcomes

Explain the guiding principles of integrated reporting, especially strategic focus, connectivity of information, stakeholder relationships, materiality, conciseness, reliability, and consistency

Describe the content elements of an integrated report and explain how they differ from the sustainability disclosure standards' four pillars

Explain connected information and how connectivity operates across the four pillars, across statements, and between financial and sustainability reporting

Describe how the six capitals are affected by an entity's activities and how to trace an outcome through the business model to a capital

Explain the role of management commentary and how integrated reporting concepts inform narrative disclosure alongside financial statements

Apply materiality in the integrated reporting sense and reconcile it with the ISSB enterprise-value lens

Reconstruct the TCFD's eleven recommended disclosures across the four pillars and explain the supporting guidance for each

Explain the TCFD's scenario analysis guidance and how transition and physical risk are assessed over short, medium, and long term

Describe the CDSB framework's principles and its reporting requirements for environmental information and climate change, and explain how CDSB's work was consolidated into the IFRS Foundation

Explain the current climate-disclosure landscape: how TCFD-aligned disclosure is now embedded in IFRS S2, and what regulators such as the ISSB, IOSCO, and major jurisdictions have done with it

Synthesise the four domains into one coherent disclosure strategy, showing where each framework's requirements enter and how they interact

Diagnose and close personal knowledge gaps identified from earlier deliverables and milestone checks

Practise applying standards to unfamiliar scenarios under time pressure, including judgement calls on materiality, reliefs, and scope

Verify currency of key facts: standard effective dates, deferral reliefs, jurisdictional adoption status, and the consolidation of legacy bodies into the IFRS Foundation