The current level of financial planning courses is too low and goes nowhere near supporting the growth needs of Australia's advisory industry, an industry director has said.
AMP Horizons Academy director Tim Steele said industry research estimated there were around 200,000 students in business-related university programs, however, each year less than 300 graduates entered a career in financial planning straight from university.
As part of a push to increase awareness of the planning profession, AMP has launched the AMP University Challenge, a financial planning competition open to students from Australia's 38 universities.
"This [the competition] was a way of building increased awareness of financial planning to university students who typically we felt didn't have real clarity about how they may go about joining the profession and typically didn't have great awareness of financial planning as a genuine long-term career option," Steele said.
"So unquestionably for us we need more universities offering formal financial planning qualifications and we need more students choosing to pursue a career as a financial planner through a financial planning qualification."
The AMP University Challenge will allow individuals or groups of up to three students to test their skills by preparing a short scoped advice discussion paper in response to a hypothetical client case study.
The winning team will receive a $5000 AMP bank account, FPA membership and professional development opportunities, while the winning team's university will also receive a $10,000 grant to put towards financial planning programs.
FPA chief professional officer Deen Sanders said the competition helped raise the bar on education.
"Only 18 of our country's 38 universities offer approved financial planning-related programs, but we've seen growing interest in the profession as a topic in other study streams, such as economics, finance and accounting," Sanders said.
The competition is supported by the FPA and Financial Planning Academics Forum and is available for entry on 25 July.
