NAB and four universities launch financial planning scholarship

NAB Future Planners Scholarship was launched on Monday at four Australian universities, namely Deakin Business School, Griffith University, Western Sydney University and RMIT University. The program is open to Australian citizens or permanent resident students currently studying in a business-related field with financial planning as their major.

Undergraduate financial planning students in their second and third year are eligible for the program. A student must be studying part time, full time, on campus or remotely in Australia to be eligible. However, a student must be remained enrolled in the course for a minimum of 12 months following the awarding of the scholarship. Students with immediate family members currently working at NAB and other universities are ineligible in the program.

An applicant should submit one entry until April 14, 2017, at 5 p.m. Each university may send up to five applications to NAB. Each university applicant will undergo a selection process using the selection criteria as a guide. The university selection panel including representatives from academic and administrative staff and the NAB selection panels will judge the 500-word written response of each applicant.

The 500-word written response should contain the reasons why an applicant wanted to be a financial planner. The applicant should explain several ways how the scholarship would help in achieving the goal as a financial planner. It should also include an opinion about how a remarkable customer service should look like in the financial industry in 2017. Applicants are encouraged to add skills and attributes -- collaborative team player, personal resilience ability to communicate with influence, driven to succeed, respect for people and values diversity -- in their response.

A selected applicant should show response displaying a genuine interest in financial planning. It should also include the motivating factors for pursuing a career in financial planning. These are the content that would be considered in analysing the right candidate. A commitment to making a positive contribution to customers and communities and to enhance the financial industry, personal growth and development should also appear in the response.

Each scholarship recipient will receive $5,000 towards the scholar's university studies in financial planning and living expenses. The scholar gets an invitation to attend a NAB financial planning professional development day and a mentorship with a senior financial planner at NAB financial planning.

The bank also launched an academic research program partnering with the Financial Planning Association (FPA) and the Financial Planning Education Council (FPEC). The academic research would conduct a research focusing on understanding more about barriers to seeking advice and customer experience. NAB FP would contribute $5,000 to the academic research.

Correction March 20: The original draft of this article incorrectly stated that the research grant was at $5,000. It has now been corrected to $10,000.