One of the benefits of serving the CFP marketplace as an educational provider is the privilege we have to connect with so many individuals of various backgrounds. Whether they have been serving clients within the wealth management industry for many years, whether they are considering a change of career, or those only looking to better their knowledge of the financial planning topics for their own personal or family reasons, it’s a wide range of backgrounds and life experiences which bring us together.
While this accelerated online CFP Certification Education Program provides the flexibility to learn the material at your own pace, it is our goal to connect our community of learners together and use this blogging delivery medium to gain your insights and share industry perspective with others.
Recently, I had an impactful conversation with a prospective student looking to gain the CFP Certification to assist the underprivileged community in his region. His analysis of various programs caused him to ask the question, “What is the difference between a financial planning “degree-based program” and a “CFP Certificate program,” and does it really matter?” Interestingly enough, the next day, he forwarded an article recently highlighted in SmartMoney magazine analyzing how Financial Planning Degree programs compare to corporate training programs and whether or not academic-based programs truly prepare a person for what they need to know to actually do their job effectively in the “Real World.” An excerpt from the article highlights the bottom-line question:
“Many advisers — particularly at the biggest brokerages, which tend to train their staff in-house, question just how well a classroom experience can prepare someone for real-life financial planning, especially in an age of fast-moving, global markets. Even advisers who spent time in the halls of academia have their doubts, such as Glenn Moore, an adviser with Gordon Asset Management in the Durham, N.C., area, who attended a financial-planning program at Virginia Tech. “No amount of schooling,” he says, “can fully prepare you for what you encounter on the job.””
Share your comments and give us your perspective. Do you feel a working knowledge of how this information is put into practice face-to-face with clients and prospects is a vital part of the CFP educational process? We look forward to your comments and dialog surrounding this issue.
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I had previously read the article and was a bit concerned at first about what was said because I had just enrolled in the CFP certificate program at the University of Georgia. I am a career changer having been in the high tech industry for 30 years. I was a software engineer for 20 of those years. After thinking about what was said in the article I remembered my experiences with obtaining my Bachelor of Science Degree in Computer Science and becoming a software engineer. In the end the same thing can be said about my experiences with becoming an engineer. Going through the educational process and getting the degree cannot fully prepare an engineer for real life software programming. Academia and the real world are just never going to be the same no matter what the profession. However the degree is essential because it provides the knowledge and foundation required to enter the profession. Any company knowingly hiring someone with a recently acquired degree or certificate and no real world experience is going to provide training and mentoring to get that person to where they want them to be.
Thank you for taking the time to give your perspective on the article. We agree that no single educational component will fully prepare a person for the role of their job unless true, “real-world” perspective is incorporated into the learning process. Understanding best-practices for how the best advisors apply these technical topics is vital to helping jumpstart a career or simply earning the trust of your clients and prospects. Thank you again for your perspective as we look forward to additional thoughts and perspective.