Kaplan Professional Education has recommended that the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) drop its two-step move to a bachelor degree-level qualification for financial planners and instead adopt a program that mirrors a university course where units become more difficult as the course progresses.
ASIC has suggested in Consultation Paper 212 on the training of financial product advisers that all new entrants and existing advisers who change their activities be trained to an advanced diploma level by 2015 and to a bachelor-level degree standard by 2019.
However Kaplan Professional Education chief executive Brian Knight said this two-step system was unlikely to be widely supported by industry education providers who would not redesign their courses twice in four years to fit ASIC’s proposed system.
In a submission to ASIC on CP212, Knight said Kaplan had recommended any move to a bachelor-level degree qualification should follow the architecture of a university degree, where studies take place at three different levels and where each level builds on the preceding level of knowledge and skills.
Knight said this model could be introduced and would allow prior recognition of Diplomas and Advanced Diplomas of Financial Planning as being equivalent to first and second year university studies. Further mandatory studies at the third level would complete the degree-equivalent required by ASIC and industry associations.
It would also provide a further pathway for advice providers to study for various industry designation and post-graduate studies in the area of financial planning.
Knight said the model could also be adapted to ensure there was no skills gap between existing advisers and new entrants with suitable mandatory continuing professional development used to ensure existing advisers were trained to the levels required by ASIC.
Knight said this would also remove some of the time constraints education providers would face in having to implement whatever final proposals are adopted and released by ASIC in April 2014 for a January 2015 implementation date.
Kaplan also rejected ASIC’s move to have those providing general advice on less complex Tier 2 products to be trained above a Certificate III level, stating it believed the current standards were sufficient for the advice given.
