AFA to offer ‘soft skills’ training course

Dennis Bateman

The Association of Financial Advisers is to offer a ‘soft skills’ training course for advisers in an attempt to help reduce the level of underinsurance in Australia.

National president Dennis Bateman said yesterday that the AFA would “come out to the market within the next two or three weeks on the details of how we are going to deliver” the voluntary certificate course.

“We are currently revitalising various sales and people skills manuals that were formerly used by industry for training advisers, and getting them checked over for due diligence and compliance.”

Also director of Queensland-based Toowoomba Financial Centre, part of the Charter group, Bateman said the association would primarily target all AFS licensees to distribute the course to their authorised representatives.

“The idea is that any adviser or planner who has come into the industry within the last 10 to 15 years would be an ideal candidate for the course.

He would not comment on the structure of the course, currently being “honed and tested” by pilot licensees, but envisaged it comprising “three hours one day a week over 12 to 13 weeks, with the content largely based on real life sales scenarios”.

The course is intended to reverse a situation in industry where “soft skills have withered, even as hard skills, such as product knowledge and compliance have strengthened,” he said.

“Our goal is to help advisers and planners gain the knowledge to provide a better overall service to clients and in so doing to recognise and understand where the underinsurance problem lies.”

The course will be accompanied by an upgraded and expanded itinerary of AFA roadshows/workshops during this year, also designed with the emphasis on helping advisers improve their soft skills.

The itinerary includes a total of 60 roadshows/workshops to be held in capital cities and regional centres, with 13 ‘Generation X’ roadshow/workshops for younger advisers.