More women than men accessing new education standards training
The recent push by financial services institutions to educate planning and support staff has already led to large scale interest in education courses with women making up a majority of those being trained.
University of Wollongong Sydney Business School business development manager Rochelle Jeffrey said that while the level of women in undergraduate courses is around 20 per cent, the number of women in courses designed to meet industry demands for higher standards was in the majority.
Jeffrey said there is a high level of interest from the big four banks to train planners and bank staff up to the new standards, particularly for women who may have entered the sector with lower qualifications.
"Many were brought into the industry in support and administration roles and have worked their way into management and advisory positions. Ten years ago their training and education was okay but now there is a real demand for it to be boosted," Jeffrey said.
Advisers aligned with planning groups within AMP, Commonwealth Bank and NAB have recently been required to have higher education standards with current planners expected to gain a professional designation while new entrants will be required to have a degree qualification and gain a professional designation.
Despite the demand for training within the financial services sector Jeffrey said it still struggled to attract women as undergraduates with a general lack of awareness of the variety of roles available in financial services to women.
"There is a 50/50 split between men and women across all of our commerce courses but when it comes to banking, accounting and financial services it appears women are opting away from some roles," Jeffrey said.
"Students are not distinguishing between accounting, banking, economics and financial services. They are the same discipline in an educational sense but are very different skills in the workplace."
AUTHOR
Jason Spits
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