The Financial Planning Association of Australia (FPA) has awarded $85,000 to Kaplan to part-fund 10 scholarships with the aim to encourage more women to pursue careers in financial planning.
Earlier this year, the FPA revealed it has received a $1.5 million grant from the government to provide 38 scholarships in total valued up to $50,000 each, as part of the government’s Women’s Leadership and Development Plan.
The FPA has now allocated a part of that funding to Kaplan, which is hopeful its facilitation of the scholarship will help encourage women to enter (or re-enter) the industry and achieve positions of leadership.
“We know there is already significant pressure on financial advisers across the industry, and there are a number of additional barriers and challenges that women may face,” said Kaplan Professional CEO Brian Knight.
“We hope the scholarship scheme will go some way towards alleviating some of the financial burden of studying at a postgraduate level, especially for those women who may be disadvantaged by their situation.”
According to Mr Knight, greater gender diversity is needed in the industry, with progress towards this goal resting on education.
“We believe there is a strong need for a greater number of female advisers to assist Australians because of the perspective they bring,” said Mr Knight.
“We have seen the number of women enrolled in our postgraduate financial planning qualifications steadily increase over the past few years — women now make up over 40 per cent of our student population.
“We are proud of this figure and would like to see an escalation in this trend.”
The scholarships offered through Kaplan will fully cover the tuition fees of any four subjects within Kaplan Professional’s FASEA-approved Master of Financial Planning.
The detail of the scholarship is determined by whether the recipient is commencing postgraduate study or choosing to continue their studies in a Graduate Certificate in Financial Planning or Graduate Diploma of Financial Planning.
Applicants for the scholarship will be considered on their ability to demonstrate intersecting sources of disadvantage.
Scholarship applications are now open and will close on 1 October 2021.
Scholarships will be awarded from Study Period 6, which commences on 8 November 2021.
