Govt grant aims to place advice graduates

A prestigious government grant recently awarded to a financial planning educator is designed at fostering better communication between advice employers and universities to improve career outcomes for graduates.

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by Chris Kennedy - July 09, 2013 0 comments

Dr Mark Brimble, associate professor (Finance) at Griffith University, was awarded one of nine Office of Learning and Teaching (OLT) fellowships to help financial advice graduates enter the workforce.

“The fact it is in financial planning and there are all those issues around the employability of graduates, as well as collaboration and cooperation between educational institutions and the industry as employers, signals the Office of Learning and Teaching sees value in promoting the development of education within financial planning,” Dr Brimble told ifa.

“Once you get away from larger organisations, it’s hard for industry to build relationships with the university sector,” he added.

“It can be hard to find who to talk to about creating a framework for communication and collaboration to happen, and building models for that support to happen.”

The program, Facilitating and promoting work-integrated learning in an emerging profession (financial planning), aims to develop “work-integrated learning standards that complement and are aligned with the National Financial Planning Curriculum and Accreditation Framework to improve student work-readiness, graduate capabilities and employability,” the OLT stated.

During the program Dr Brimble will consult with employer representatives, students and academics with the aim of building a model to help develop the next generation of financial advisers that meets the needs of all stakeholders.

The project aims to “engender greater participation from industry in the higher education process,” Dr Brimble said.

This includes the addition of guest lecturers into programs, collaborating on the curriculum right through to internship programs.