Specialised Financial Services

Training snapshot

Program enrolments in Specialised Financial Services-related qualifications fell each year between 2017 and 2021 from around 335 to just under 60. Program completions have followed a similar pattern over the same period decreasing from 130 in 2017 to 40 in 2021. Program enrolments during 2021 were either in the areas of mercantile agency or risk management. The intended occupations for these qualifications, included Credit and Loans Officer (Aus)/Finance Clerk (NZ), Finance Broker, and Internal Auditor.

For enrolments in 2021, all Specialised Financial Services-related qualifications were delivered by private training providers, with majority of subjects funded through domestic fee for service arrangements.

In 2021, New South Wales had the highest proportion of students who enrolled in Specialised Financial Services-related qualifications at 52%. The largest proportion of the training was delivered in Queensland (53%), followed by Victoria (24%) and New South Wales (23%).

There has been minimal apprentice and trainee activity in this sector since 2016. However after zero commencements were recorded in 2019 and 2020, there were just over 20 reported in 2021 although this is well below the peak of around 280 in 2014. There have been no completions since 2018.

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Industry insights on skills needs

According to the Financial Services IRC’s 2019 Skills Forecast, demographic changes will shape the trust administration sector through increasing focus on products required for the management of the financial affairs for ageing Australians who may no longer be able to make financial decisions for themselves, such as powers of attorney and financial administration orders. Communication skills and customer relationship skills are increasingly important in the trust administration sector as the sector considers what, if any, their future role (legislatively or otherwise) will be in assisting to identify elder abuse and ensure customers are not under duress. In the future, this may require trust administrators to assist in identifying issues when drafting and administering powers of attorney and financial management.

A focus on ethical service and risk management is increasing across the Financial Services industry, driven by changes in the regulatory environment, professional standards and public scrutiny. This is likely to increase employers' demand for skills such as compliance and risk management.

The risk and compliance jobs market is currently strong, providing plenty of new opportunities in the sector. For example, banks are looking for more workers across operational risk and conduct risk, anti-money laundering and financial crime operations, and regulatory compliance roles. In the last year alone, there has been an increase of 48% in risk and compliance job listings. Given that compliance and risk job roles require a specialised skill set, it can be difficult for employers to find suitable workers for the role.

The above Skills Forecast states that mercantile agents need skills relating to: maintaining and preparing financial records, resolving disputes, collecting debts, serving legal processes, identifying, locating and notifying debtors of overdue accounts, and complying with debt collection guidelines and relevant legislation. Data management skills are critical for mercantile agents as technology offers new ways to track customers known as 'skip tracing', and to connect customer information and data to support the debt recovery process. Mercantile agents also need skills to manage difficult interactions with customers who are experiencing financial hardship or are struggling to pay their debts.

PWC’s Skills for Australia has completed work on a project to address uptake of existing training products with low enrolments and update training products for specialist areas in the Financial Services (FNS) training package such as Mercantile Agents, Personal Injury and Trust Administration.

The Mercantile Agent role is a specialist area undergoing transformation reflecting an increased focus on ethical practices in the regulatory environment and on improving customer relationship skills. Additionally, despite the low number of enrolments, the decline in real gross domestic product (GDP) per capita in Australia in recent years means that there is likely to be higher demand for workers in debt collection services. In order to perform their role, these financial service professionals will need skills relating to maintaining and preparing financial records, resolving disputes, collecting debts, serving legal processes, identifying, locating and notifying customers of overdue accounts, and complying with debt collection guidelines and relevant legislation. Customers experiencing hardship and repossession of goods and homes, need Mercantile Agents to be well equipped with the skills to manage debt collection and repossessions with due diligence and care.

Changes to personal injury administration roles mean that a worker’s focus is moving away from process-oriented tasks, which are increasingly becoming automated, to a more service-oriented role. Recent changes also stress the importance of developing the skills of learners relating to the holistic wellbeing of customers and their recovery. This shift to a customer-centric approach requires personal injury professionals to acquire critical thinking, effective decision making, and relationship-building skills to think beyond steps outlined in a process. In addition, advances in technology have enhanced access to customer information and facilitated processes. Therefore, the personal injury sector is implementing automated processes to manage repetitive tasks at the case manager level through data analysis, which drives business improvements at a leadership level. These changes needed to be reflected in the training products – recovery and customer relationships skills had previously not been properly addressed.

The two qualifications in the trust administration project, FNS42215 Certificate IV in Personal Trust Administration and FNS52015 Diploma of Personal Trusts, were reviewed for their industry need. While it was identified that no training providers currently offer these qualifications, industry consultation identified the importance of this qualification and its subsequent need to remain in the FNS Training Package. In addition, it emerged that two training providers are currently in the process of adding these qualifications to their scope. This confirms the industry need for these two qualifications.

The Financial Services Council (FSC) has published The FSC Guide to the Prevention of Elder Financial Abuse. The guide states that training and procedures consistent with a financial institution's policies on elder financial abuse empower financial representatives to act promptly and with authority when elder financial abuse is suspected. It is essential that training programs describe what actions to take when employees detect problems, including the process to be followed, and the roles and responsibilities of all staff and management involved.

Key elements of effective employee training include:

• Definitions, risk profiles and case studies of elder financial abuse.
• Identification of red flags (client-facing and transactional) and appropriate responses.
• Protocols for reporting and escalation, including details of what needs to be recorded and how.
• Methods for recording suspicious activity on client accounts.
• Contact points for employee assistance (internal and external).

Training needs to be tailored to different staff roles and repeated periodically. These processes should be overseen with the same due care as other employee training programs, including allocation of appropriate roles and responsibilities and clear links to internal governance procedures.

Below is a list of industry-relevant research, organisations and associations. Hyperlinks have been included where available.

IRC and Skills Forecasts

Specialised financial services IRC

• Financial Services IRC’s 2019 Skills Forecast

• IRC membership

• PWC’s Skills for Australia – Skills Service Organisation

Relevant research

Specialisms With Low Enrolments – PWC's Skills for Australia – Skills Service Organisation

The FSC Guide to the Prevention of Elder Financial Abuse – Financial Services Council (FSC)

Industry associations and advisory bodies

Association of Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialists (ACAMS)

Institute of Mercantile Agents (IMA)

Risk Management Association (RMA) Australia

Employee associations

Finance Sector Union (FSU)

Training data has been extracted from the National VET Provider Collection, Total VET Students and Courses from the following training package or qualifications:

• FNS Financial Services Training Package
• Anti-Money Laundering and Counter Terrorism Financing
  
  • FNS51710 - Diploma of Applied Anti-Money Laundering and Counter Terrorism Financing Management
  • FNS51715 - Diploma of Applied Anti-Money Laundering and Counter Terrorism Financing Management
  • FNS80020 - Graduate Certificate in Anti-Money Laundering and Counter Terrorism Financing
  • FNS80115 - Graduate Diploma of Anti-Money Laundering and Counter Terrorism Financing
  • FNS80120 - Graduate Diploma of Anti-Money Laundering and Counter Terrorism Financing
• Mercantile Agents
  
  • FNS30410 - Certificate III in Mercantile Agents
  • FNS30415 - Certificate III in Mercantile Agents
  • FNS30420 - Certificate III in Mercantile Agents
• Personal Trusts
  
  • FNS41311 - Certificate IV in Personal Trust Administration
  • FNS41315 - Certificate IV in Personal Trust Administration
  • FNS42215 - Certificate IV in Personal Trust Administration
  • FNS42222 - Certificate IV in Personal Trust Administration
  • FNS52015 - Diploma of Personal Trusts
  • FNS52022 - Diploma of Personal Trusts
• Risk Management
  
  • FNS50811 - Diploma of Integrated Risk Management
  • FNS50815 - Diploma of Integrated Risk Management
  • FNS60811 - Advanced Diploma of Integrated Risk Management
  • FNS60815 - Advanced Diploma of Integrated Risk Management
  • FNS60820 - Advanced Diploma of Integrated Risk Management
  • FNS60822 - Advanced Diploma of Integrated Risk Management.

This includes superseded qualifications and training packages.

Data covers a range of selected student and training characteristics in the following categories and years:

• 2017 to 2021 program enrolments
• 2017 to 2021 program completions
• 2021 subject enrolments

Total VET students and courses data is reported for the calendar year. Program enrolments are the qualifications, courses and skill-sets in which students are enrolled in a given period. For students enrolled in multiple programs, all programs are counted. Program completion indicates that a student has completed a structured and integrated program of education or training. Location data uses student residence. Subject enrolment is registration of a student at a training delivery location for the purpose of undertaking a module, unit of competency or subject. For more information on the terms and definitions, please refer to the Total VET students and courses: terms and definitions document.

Low counts (less than 5) are not reported to protect client confidentiality.

Percentages are rounded to one decimal place. This can lead to situations where the total sum of proportions in a chart may not add up to exactly 100%.

FNS Financial Services Training Package apprentice and trainee data has been extracted from the National Apprentice and Trainee Collection, including:

• 2012 to 2021 commencements
• 2012 to 2021 completions.