FPA and Platinum announce new education scholarship


Platinum Asset Management has teamed up with the Neilson Foundation to offer a scholarship to undergraduate students majoring in financial planning, the Financial Planning Association (FPA) has announced.
The scholarships will be offered through Deakin, LaTrobe, Canberra, Western Sydney and Wollongong universities and will begin in 2014.
About 20 students will receive $15,000 each, with prizes on offer for outstanding academic achievement.
Director of communications and investor services at Platinum, Liz Norman, said the scholarship was an incentive for students passionate about financial planning.
"We recognise the vital role that financial planners play not only in our business but the investment management community generally, and we see this scholarship as a way of supporting the efforts of the FPA to raise educational standards and encourage new talent into the industry," she said.
FPA CEO Mark Rantall thanked Platinum for its support of financial planning and noted the broader significance of the scholarship.
"Australians have the right to feel confident in the educational qualifications and competence of people who call themselves financial planners; and this scholarship will help encourage talented future financial planners."
He said the FPA launched the National Accreditation and Curriculum Framework for financial planning degrees last year, which established a relationship between the industry and academia.
"We believe that these scholarships will help cement and uphold those standards by rewarding promising and passionate students who are committed to a career in financial planning," he said.
Students must be studying full time and major in financial planning to qualify for the scholarship. It is usually awarded to a second or third year undergraduate students.
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