Education provider Kaplan Professional believes around 1700 advisers are at risk of not meeting the deadline to have an approved tertiary qualification.
Kaplan announced this week it had launched a one-time, six-week intensive study period to help as many advisers as possible reach the 1 January 2026 deadline.
The firm’s chief executive Brian Knight tells Professional Planner he reckons they’ve “got about 1700 advisers” who are at risk of not meeting the deadline.
“When we look at what we can do with them, we think we can narrow that down to about 500 that may be at risk of not meeting the deadline,” he says.
In order to have as many advisers reach the education requirements by the deadline, Kaplan is introducing an accelerated option which will run alongside the final regular intakes of the year.
The intensive study period could help advisers to fast track their education progress or complete a subject in a condensed timeframe should it suit them better.
The intensive study period allows advisers to complete a subject in six weeks, rather than the usual 12-week period, while still ensuring the same academic thoroughness and the assessment requirements.
“Advisers would have to really work because they’ve still got to get through the same amount of work in a shortened period,” Knight says.
Knight adds the enrolments have been “staggering” all year.
“We normally would do about 1200 enrolments in [financial] planning every study period this year, they’ve been 2000,” he says.
Knight says they have been telling people for two years not to leave pursuing study until the end, but the number of advisers now enrolling in Kaplan’s study periods reveal many have only now realised they need to ensure they meet all their education requirements.
“There’s a lot more that are now trying at the last minute to have a go,” he says.
“What we’re doing is providing more options for them, for those who have four or five subjects still to go, because we realise they won’t make it unless we do some extra support for them.”
The average experience of the advisers enrolled in the courses is around seven to eight years and they may not know they do not meet the education requirements and can’t rely on the experience pathway.
“The older ones really aren’t the issue,” Knight says. “The young ones, new ones, aren’t an issue – a lot of them have got degrees.
“It’s that range of people who run their own practices or are working for a licensee that think they are there or have got to the end and thought ‘oh God I haven’t done this’.”
