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Jessica Darnbrough
The future of broking does not lie in a university degree, one key stakeholder has claimed - labelling degrees “irrelevant” to third party distribution.
Speaking to The Adviser, Intellitrain’s director Andrew Hetherington said while he supported further education for brokers, university degrees should not become a requirement in the industry.
“I believe brokers need to be highly skilled. They need to understand finance and financials, they need to understand cash flow and they need to be property experts. But, do they need to have a university degree? Absolutely not,” he said.
“Brokers should be able to get the Certificate IV, a mentor and then get started, further upskilling from there over time."
“I simply believe university degrees are irrelevant to mortgage brokers.”
Mr Hetherington’s comments come on the back of a conversation sparked by Smartline’s Joe Sirianni last year.
At the 2011 MFAA conference, Mr Sirianni said educational standards in the industry would continue to rise and a university degree would be the “future”.
The resurgence of the university degree debate comes at a time that the industry is deeply divided over the MFAA's requirement that members must complete a diploma before the extended deadline of December 2012.
Senior figures have had stark differences in opinion as to the relevance of the diploma, as do many brokers.
Mortgage Choice chief executive Michael Russell told The Adviser earlier this year that while he supported further education, the diploma was too much too soon - as NCCP has not long come into play.
"At Mortgage Choice, we certainly support and indeed encourage further education. We also support any initiative that is going to improve the overall professionalism of the industry. What I disagree with here is the timing for the mandatory completion of the diploma," Mr Russell said.
"The MFAA, I feel, have failed to comprehend the sheer magnitude of change that brokers have had to contend with post NCCP.
"It's only been 12 months and many are still refining their processes and coming to terms with what is required to be fully compliant. With this in mind, I feel now is not the right time to force them to complete a diploma. Our lenders are not requiring it, nor is ASIC.
"In almost any other industry, further education beyond what is legally required to practise (in our case an ACL) is encouraged, but left to the discretion of the individual or in some cases the employer. I'm not sure why our major industry association is mandating it so quickly after ASIC elected not too."
But while Mr Russell said the mandatory diploma requirements are being enforced prematurely, Aussie executive director James Symond welcomes the initiative.
"At the end of the day, we are happy to keep raising the bar in this industry," Mr Symond said.
