The Association of Financial Advisers (AFA) has come out in support of the FPA's calls to raise the bar when it comes to the education requirements for entry-level financial planners.
AFA chief executive Richard Klipin said the AFA supported the FPA's comments that the industry had lost confidence in the way the current education standard, RG146, determined the entry level for the profession.
"There needs to be a broad industry debate around a new national adviser curriculum and how we address education and ongoing training," Klipin told InvestorDaily.
The FPA's recommendations announced at its annual conference yesterday included that by 2015 all new entrants looking to become financial planners have as a minimum a tertiary qualification in financial planning, and that by 2012 all qualified financial planners have undertaken at least a year of full-time supervised work where they interact with clients.
Klipin said while a tertiary qualification in financial planning alone would not necessarily create quality financial planners, combining it with a year of mandatory on-the-job training was a very good idea.
"You learn a lot of theoretical and technical knowledge at university but it is important that people also learn how to apply that knowledge in a monitored environment," Klipin said.
The FPA also recommended that by 2012 there is a commonly recognised curriculum for financial planning based on the Financial Planning Standards Board curriculum topics.
The FPA also said it wanted to join forces with ASIC, the government and the profession in order to develop an objective assessment tool for financial planners through the establishment of a high level education council comprising industry and education stakeholders.
Klipin said: "I think the key to achieving a national and more robust curriculum for financial planners will require a collaborative approach by all industry stakeholders where we flesh out the issues together."
