The Indigenous Financial Counselling Mentorship Program began in 2008 with ICAN’s vision to raise the number of qualified and accredited Indigenous financial counsellors across Australia.
At the onset of ICAN’s first ‘Mentorship Program’, there existed only four qualified Indigenous financial counsellors in Australia. Armed with it’s vision to Empower Indigenous Consumers, ICAN had set about the task of improving access to quality financial counselling services for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples living in remote communities – whom often experience high volumes of consumer and financial detriment, due to limited financial literacy rates, English as a second language and geographical and cultural barriers to accessing support services. ICAN felt the best way to tackle this detriment was to armour and empower Indigenous peoples themselves, with the tools to combat their own issues in their own communities, by training Indigenous peoples in the Diploma of Financial Counselling – to become qualified and accredited financial counsellors.
The Program is a culturally specific Diploma training program modelled on student support and mentorship for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander financial counsellors and financial capability workers located in some of Australia’s most remote locations. With a dedicated training coordinator, the program includes personal and academic mentorship in a supported learning environment, connecting students through virtual and face-to-face classroom oriented training. The program provides accredited training to Indigenous peoples in the Diploma of Financial Counselling, developing the skill set of Indigenous peoples working in their local communities and raising the number of qualified Indigenous financial counsellors nationally.
ICAN’s Mentorship Program is delivered in partnership with the Commonwealth Bank, our industry partner since 2006, and ICAN Learn (Registered Training Organisation). In seven years, the program has scaled significantly to achieve a national reach. ICAN has successfully graduated 34 participants through its 2010-12, 2013-14 & 2015-16 programs. The Mentorship Program is recognised within the financial counselling sector as a best practice training model for people wishing to undertake the Diploma.
With Commonwealth Bank’s continued investment, ICAN Learn is providing scholarships for 12 student placements in the 2017-2018 Indigenous Financial Counselling Mentorship Program.
ICAN Learn will also be offering scholarships for its new Multicultural Program, which will offer the Diploma of Financial Counselling in 2017-18.
ICAN Learn is now accepting scholarship applications for its 2017-18 Diploma training programs:
Multicultural Program
Scholarship Application
Submission Due Date: July 21, 2017
Indigenous Financial Counselling Mentorship Program
Scholarship Application
Submission Due Date: June 30, 2017
For further information about the programs, contact:
Majella Anderson -Training Coordinator
Indigenous Consumer Assistance Network
Phone: (07) 4031 1073
Email: majella.anderson@ican.org.au