Instructor Hiring Policy and Practices

1. The individual teaching an NMLS-approved course is required to be an independent contractor or an employee of Tap Money Institute.Tap Money Institute will not hire or contract with in any manner – regardless of whether there is compensation or not – an individual who is an employee or contractor of a client company or an affiliate company.

‍2. Instructor Skills and Qualifications

2.1. Tap Money Institute instructors must be qualified and meet legal requirements to instruct NMLS approved courses.Instructors must be knowledgeable in the course subject matter as a result of either relevant academic and/or professional experience.

2.2. Instructor Skills: Instructors must possess the following skills and qualifications:

• Interpersonal Skills that foster relationship and team building. Instructors need to be able to work appropriately with diverse groups of people. Instructors are required to be respectful of and refrain from making comments that may reveal political, cultural, or gender bias.
• Communication Skills. Instructors are required to use language, including industry terminology, confidently and appropriately.
• Teaching Skills. Instructors are to possess the ability to share information one-to-one or one-to-many. Additionally, the instructor must be able to demonstrate mastery of the course material, plan lessons and lead students through the course topic, and collect and use information from diverse sets of resources. Instructors are required to. distill complex information and/or concepts in such manner that students can learn the information. Simply reading from texts, materials, or state/ federal statutes with little or no interaction and/or synthesis of the material does not meet the definition of teaching. The employment of “canned” responses in online instructor-led course is also not defined as teaching.
• Organizational Skills. Instructors need to be able to set goals (generally in the form of learning objectives), plan activities, establish priorities, and manage time.

2.3. Instructors Qualifications. Instructors must demonstrate through recent and verifiable experience, that she/he is a subject matter expert in one or more areas of mortgage loan origination laws and practices including, but not limited to:

• Federal law and regulations;
• State laws and regulations;
• General mortgage origination knowledge and practices.

2.4. Detailed requirements for instructors from various segments of the mortgage industry are as follows:

• Industry professional. Instructors must have at least 5 years of professional experience in the industry in a position that bears directly on mortgage loan origination practices including, but not limited to origination, underwriting, secondary marketing, operations compliance, quality control, and/or other comparable positions.
• Federal/State Regulator. Regulatory instructors must have at least 3 years of responsible experience in a regulatory position, including the conduct or supervision of mortgage company examination (brokers and/or lenders), consumer complaint investigation and resolution, or mortgage legal affairs.
• AssociatedMortgage GSE Professional. Instructors formerly or currently associated with Mortgage GSE’s must have a minimum of 3 years of responsible experience in a position that is comparable to either the industry professional or regulator position described above.
• Experience as an Instructor. Those who are teaching courses should have experience teaching adult learners and be in possession of the skills as listed above.

3. Instructors must also meet minimum requirements for a criminal background check that are included in the SAFE Act. Instructors are required to provide a copy of the Georgia Crime Information Report on the instructor’s criminal history no more than 60 days old.

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