Internal Audit - Certifications + exit opps

Hello,

I am a 20 something from Italy. Some background about me I graduated from a public uni in Italy (not Bocconi, no money for that), and I also did my master in Finance in the netherlands. I moved back to Italy after my master where I worked in Big4 risk line for a year, I got an offer from a fairly big bank (not BB, but still fairly big to make into the F200) to join their IA division and I jumped ship as they doubled my salary. I went from making less than 30k to 60k in a year, so it seemed like a no brainer at the time. I have been enjoying the work so far, and my company is also sponsoring me to pursue certifications. I was wondering what would be the best certification for me to get that will not pigeonhole me in IA, and could allow me to expand my range of exit opps? I have been enjoying the job so far and I can easily climb the corporate ladder within the audit division until AVP, but I would like to keep my options open.

Also, I would like to know what are exit opps for IA? My idea would be to try to get promoted to either AVP or Senior Auditor to then jump ship. Which would be my options? I know several of my coworkers moved into strategy roles within the firm, so internal opportunities are definitely feasible.

I know this forum has a strong bias against everything outside of the IB/PE/HF niche, but honestly I will never be able to handle those hours so I never even considered those as an option (and they probably would have never considered me for those lolol), so those being outside the picture is not really an issue to me.