A training provider has stopped offering some modules for insurance professionals, claiming they fail to meet her industry clients’ needs.

Val Phinn, director of the Financial Services School in Brisbane, says inadequacies in the system need to be tackled in a review being conducted by the Federal Government.

She says Innovation & Business Skills Australia (IBSA) – one of 11 industry skills councils set up by the Government to oversee vocational training – recently issued new insurance training packages in which some standards have been “downgraded”.

“The requirements for a Diploma of Insurance Broking have been lowered, being downgraded from 13 units of competency to 10,” Ms Phinn told insuranceNEWS.com.au.

She says her school cannot now offer courses for Certificate IV in Loss Adjusting or the new Certificate IV in Insurance Broking, because they are not suited to Queensland requirements.

The Financial Services School, which trains about 100 students a year, is not consulted on the content of the training packages. The Australian and New Zealand Institute of Insurance and Finance (ANZIIF) and the National Insurance Brokers Association (NIBA) sit on the IBSA board.

Ms Phinn says this causes a conflict of interest, because the two organisations are also the major suppliers of industry education.

“I would like to see NIBA and ANZIIF co-operate better to benefit their small to medium-sized members,” Ms Phinn told insuranceNEWS.com.au. “That may move them to improve the packages.

“She says more consultation should occur with industry groups and clients, to see what they want in training packages.

“They can drive those changes, but we can’t.

“[They] have become perhaps too comfortable there, and not objective enough.”

Earlier this year now-retired Austbrokers & IBNA Members Services GM Martin McAvenna called for NIBA and ANZIIF to co-operate on an improved education regime. His comments have enjoyed widespread industry support.

Assistant Minister for Education and Training Simon Birmingham is conducting an industry review of vocational education and training, to reform and modernise the Australian Skills Quality Authority, cut red tape and establish a new model of training package development.

The Government has committed $68 million to reform the authority, and the Department of Education and Training will soon invite expressions of interest from bodies capable of being skills service organisations in the new training model.