How FP Canada and FP Canada Institute’s training changes put emphasis on competency
FP Canada and the FP Canada Institute have made two significant changes by updating their three-year-old QAFP certification program and launched their new technical education program.
“We’re really excited about our new education offersings,” Tashia Batstone, President and CEO of FP Canada, told Wealth Professional. “That’s largely because it’s built by financial planners for professional financial planners. “Everything that we’re building is using our CFP and our QAFP professionals to help us build it, and I think that’s a differentiator in the marketplace.
“The other element that’s really important is that our education programs have a heavy emphasis on competency based learning and professional skills. It’s not just learning technical knowledge. It’s about learning how to apply it, learning how to support a client, and learning professional skills to be able to have the right conversations with their clients. That’s all part of the program, and it’s been designed that way, very specifically, so that those who finish the program are ready to move into a client-facing role.”
Batstone noted that since launching its QAFP certificate three years ago, the organizations completed a comprehensive review of its competency profiles for QAFPs and CFPs and its body of knowledge - a process that takes place approximately every five years. They spoke to many advisors and financial planners and decided to recalibrate the QAFP certification since Canadians are increasingly seeking holistic financial planning.
“We looked at what aspiring professional financial planners are looking for in the certification because we really wanted to make sure that they have the skills that they needed and ensure that they received them in a very efficient manner. Nobody has a lot of time to spend learning what they don’t need to know,” she said. “So, we right sized the education component to ensure that they’re learning exactly what they need to learn in order to be successful when they get their exam and become a professional financial planner.”
She said the FP Canada Insitute now has also integrated the ethical and professional educational components and enhanced the sections on relationship-building skills to ensure that the trainees have all the skills they need for a client-facing career once they’re certified.
“That’s really a key differentiator between our certification and other financial planning credentialing. We have a very, very strong focus on building professional skills,” said Batstone.
Before it launched the technical education program, she said FP Canada used to send people elsewhere for their technical education. By updating its programming and launching the technical education, which is required for both CFP and QAFP certification, it’s now competing with some of those same markets since it heard that people wanted to get their core and advanced technical education, professional education, and exam in one place.
“The program is not knowledge based, it’s competency based,” she said. “So, it’s really designed to prepare someone to be in front of a client, discussing the holistic financial planning needs and providing them with a path forward.”
FP Canada now has 17,000 CFP professionals, who provide planning for those with more complex financial planning needs. Since it launched its QAFP certification three years ago, it now has 1700 certified QAFP professionals, but Batstone expects that number to continue to grow significantly.
