For an industry struggling to attract fresh blood, university partnerships are needed to help educate the next generation on the benefits of a career in advice in order to establish a strong pipeline of talent.
It is well known that Australia is currently struggling to build its adviser workforce. Though the quality of professionals and client satisfaction with their services remains high, the number of advisers leaving the profession has long outpaced the number coming in.
One of the key challenges, however, is a general lack of awareness and understanding among young people about what a career in advice actually looks like, or that it is even an option at all.
“At a blanket level, if you’d said ‘oh, I work in advice’ to some first-year university student, I think there is a lack of understanding [of what we do]. There’s no appeal,” Jameson Johnston, recently qualified financial adviser at Integro Private Wealth, told ifa.
“It’s most likely people are making assumptions that all advisers work with the same clients, do the same work. I definitely think not knowing leads to people not considering and not pursuing roles in advice.”
Echoing this sentiment, Integro advice services manager Michael Carrington said, “There’s been a bit of stigma around industry headlines, painting advice in a bad light, that obviously doesn’t help from the attracting new talent perspective.”
