Planners pre-empt education changes
Planners are pre-empting formal changes to education standards from regulators and licensees with enrolments in courses at their highest figures for the start of a new calendar year.
Kaplan Higher Education chief executive Brian Knight said interest in courses had not tapered since the end of last year and enrolments for the Advance Diploma of Financial Planning were up 35 per cent on the previous January and enrolments in degree level courses were up about 30 per cent.
He said indications from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) and licensees that they would lift the minimum level of education had resulted in people checking what level of education they held and what they would need to hold in the future.
"There was some expectation of resistance to education change but this interest has shown that it is actually the opposite. People are acting in advance of the regulator or their licensee and are looking at getting an early start," Knight said.
"People are expecting and pre-empting a new formal policy from ASIC and are looking at the Certified Financial Planner (CFP) and Fellow Chartered Financial Practitioner (FChFP) designations and are asking what they need to gain those, how they can use and benefit from them and how they fit with the Masters course."
Knight said the early enrolments were part of a shift away from minimum standards and short course education with a flight to quality and people setting themselves up for ongoing and higher levels of education.
"We are seeing a shift from basic standards to people asking where they are at and what's next and part of that is the progression from diploma level education to advanced diploma and then degree level and on to masters level in some cases," Knight said.
As a result of the ongoing demand Kaplan will double the number of starting periods for its Masters of Financial Planning course to six providing more flexibility for planners who need to manage study around peak work periods. Knight said that 330 people had already enrolled for Masters level courses running this year.
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Jason Spits
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