AMP Horizons Career Changer Program receives international recognition
AMP Horizons has won an international training and development award for its Career Changer Program.
The American Society for Training & Development (ASTD) has awarded the AMP Horizons Career Changer Program the 2012 Excellence in Practice Award in the category of Career Development.
ASTD is the world’s largest professional association for training and development. The Excellence in Practice Awards recognise organisations that have achieved organisational goals through training and development practices.
AMP Horizons Director Amelia Constantinidis said the Career Changer Program was recognised as exemplary because it fulfilled both AMP’s goal to attract more financial planners to the profession and provided career changers with a structured entry into financial planning.
“To attract more people to financial planning, we needed a program that embraced professionalism while exceeding the minimum regulatory and licensee requirements. Previously, people with the potential to be excellent financial planners – but without experience – didn’t apply,” Ms Constantinidis said.
“It wasn’t until our Career Changer Program was established in 2007 that those who wanted to become a financial planner had a pathway into the profession via our fully paid 12-month learning program. At the end of the program, our planners achieve the official status of Authorised Representative, which means they can start their own financial planning practice or join one of the hundreds that are part of our network.
“More than 581 people have now graduated from AMP Horizons. To our knowledge, it is still the only development program of its kind in this industry in Australia.”
The Career Changer Program begins with a 10-week induction followed by nine months of mentoring and on-the-job experience. It is a blended program comprising tutorials, workshops, online learning, coaching, virtual practice, role plays, guest speakers, peer groups, panel discussions, assignments, webinars, video conferences, and teleconferences.
The content includes not only technical aspects of being a competent financial planner, but also develops essential soft skills using neuro-linguistic programming, filmed role plays and positive psychology.
Ms Constantinidis continued: “Since launching in 2007, the number of new recruits has almost tripled while the cost of the program has decreased by 17 percent.
“The program has been rolled out nationally, servicing major cities and regions in Australia. Most significantly, the program is the only one of its kind aligned with a university, which provides graduates with credit towards a Masters of Financial Planning.”
ASTD received 150 submissions in 2012 from organizations around the world. Nine practices have been chosen to receive awards and 30 have been selected to receive citations.
