A manager has been hired to mentor new brokers at the only MFAA-approved training academy in Australia.
Loan Market’s Queensland Broker Academy has appointed Karen Laursen, who has nearly three decades’ experience in the finance industry, as its academy manager.
Laursen has been a “career banker” with majors such as
Westpac and
NAB for the past two decades but wanted a change.
“I ultimately needed to challenge myself and wanted to find a great company to work for – there aren’t that many of them out there actually – and Loan Market kept popping up,” she said.
“The academy manager is a rare and wonderful position and exactly what I wanted to do – to coach, train and mentor young and not-so-young new brokers.”
It is Laursen’s tenth day in the job today.
The broker academy was started in 2011 and Queensland is the only state to have its own dedicated facility for the broker academy.
The academy involves a two-year mentoring program that encompasses MFAA and all relevant industry accreditation, on-the-job training and business coaching.
Currently the academy has 25 'cadets' at various parts of the programme.
“It’s a wonderful model which provides new-to-industry brokers with the self-help knowledge which will give them drive and direction for the future,” Laursen said.
She was looking forward to being a “dedicated mentor” without administrative distractions.
Brokers come to them with their Certificate IV and spend one to two years at the academy depending on their knowledge level, before becoming freshly-minted Loan Market brokers.
“I believe it’s a wonderful opportunity to be involved in shaping minds and building skills so new brokers are confident in going out and being successful in their new chosen career,” said Laursen.
“I feel very lucky to be in this position and feel I have a lot of responsibility.”
This feature is from Issue 11.14 of Australian Broker. Download the issue to read more!
