Broking courses see lift in demand

The educator has seen similar results for the year to January, with a 15 per cent increase year-on-year.

“So, the volumes are very strong and consistent, which shows it’s a real career option for people. The steady demand and that increasing demand says that people do understand that they’ve got to do the courses, and that they’re setting themselves up for the future,” Mr Knight said.

The courses are attracting a range of professionals, according to Mr Knight, who explained that Kaplan is seeing interest from people who have worked in banking, real estate, insurance and education in particular.

“It’s often a career change,” he said. “It’s not a career that we generally see people coming straight from school into. It’s more often people who have done some work experience, or worked in some role often around the edges of financial services in banking or those types of roles.”

“They might have been a teller or they might have been in different roles and they think, ‘I’ve got good people skills, I’d like to go and understand credit and mortgages.’”

Further, he noted that there has been an increase in the number of female enquiries, which grew by 25 per cent on the previous year.

Mr Knight pointed out that the courses are also garnering interest from people who have had a positive experience with a broker and have been through the experience themselves.

“As people get exposed to finance and credit themselves, often they see what a broker does, and increasingly they say, ‘Well this is something that does interest me.’”

[Related: The biggest challenges facing new brokers]