A record number of financial advisers have embraced Kaplan Professional’s enhanced Ontrack continuing education offering as the industry accepts the challenge of increased professionalism.
“As the leading supplier of continuing education, Kaplan Professional has invested heavily in enhancing the quality of Ontrack’s content output, reporting, and user-experience,” Kaplan Professional CEO Brian Knight said. “Advisers have responded positively as they recognise that a profession is grounded on a balance of formal qualifications and ongoing continuing education, coupled with practical experience.
“The feedback we are getting is there is a real demand for high-quality, original, and unbiased technical continuing education content, which encompasses the whole range of areas and issues advisers may face in their professional practice. It is also fundamentally important to advisers and their licensees that the continuing education they are completing is accredited and rigorously assessed within an educational framework.”
According to 2022 data, the digital modules in the Financial Adviser content have been completed nearly 325,000 times – that’s up 15% over the previous year. The library also has nearly 26,000 subscribers across Australia and New Zealand.
This demonstrates advisers’ desire to level up their technical knowledge, with a focus on ethical behaviour and emerging areas such as managed investments, exchange-traded funds, and aged care (especially elder abuse).
Ethics at work, ethical perceptions in financial services, and establishing trust in financial services were the three most popular digital modules, which Knight said was unsurprising given that the current continuing professional development standard mandates a minimum of nine hours in professionalism and ethics.
“We are planning to add to the more than 300 content pieces that our technical experts produce annually in a diverse range of formats to cater to many learning styles – more podcasts, videos, and shorter micro-learning pieces,” Knight added. “We will also be expanding on our range of specialist short courses, while offering advisers more opportunities to be recognised for the continuing education they have completed through digital badging and micro-credentials.”
The Kaplan Professional leader said it also made “perfect sense” to use Ontrack as a professional year tool.
“As Ontrack is already being used by our clients as a professional year tool to record and track structured hours, we are expanding our offering with a dedicated Financial Advice Fundamentals library for candidates and supervisors that we anticipate to launch in the coming weeks,” Knight said.
“Embedded into the platform will be comprehensive professional year plan templates and ‘how to’ guides for candidates and supervisors. Content in the library will focus on shorter, bite-sized learning pieces delivered through interactive digital modules, podcasts, and videos to best suit a younger audience.”
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