The Financial Advice Association of Australia (FAAA) will establish an academy over the next 12 months to support more young people to transition into a career in the financial planning profession.
FAAA education general manager Anne Palmer said the academy will promote the value of a career as an adviser and provide a clearer pathway into the industry for aspiring professionals in order to tackle the growing advice gap.
“The FAAA sees the need for a profession-wide academy to educate high school students about financial advice being a fulfilling and rewarding career and to encourage university students to complete financial planning qualifications,” Palmer noted at a briefing held by the association yesterday.
“The aim of this academy is to raise awareness with students and potential career changers through advertising campaigns, information and perhaps scholarships to help support them transition into study at universities.
“The advice academy will also support qualified graduates to find entry-level roles in the profession and to assist emerging professionals to find and complete professional-year placements. Initial feedback from the industry has been good, with employers interested in sponsoring and taking part in the program.”
She added the academy will aim to address the gap left by fragmentation in the financial services industry, where larger licensees are no longer as effective in nurturing new talent as they once were.
“New entrants can no longer rely on big employers to run large graduate intake programs. That has left the obligation on smaller-sized advisory businesses to train up new advisers,” she said.
“The academy is going to support people through the process with structured tools and content that’s required for the program and provide mentoring, not only for professional-year candidates, but also possibly for managers and supervisors that might be doing this for the first time.
“We are in the early stages where we are working with key stakeholders and talking to members of the profession about what’s required, so watch this space as this launches. We are very excited to be delivering this institute to students in the next financial year.”
