Small Business e-Learning Series (National)

From March 2020, with the establishment of the Small Business Bushfire Financial Counselling Helpline, and the adjustments to the Credit licence exemption in August 2020, the financial counselling sector has expanded its scope to cater for clients who are small business owners.

The FCVic Small Business e-Learning has been developed progressively; first, to support the rapid deployment of small business financial counsellors within a Victorian Government funded service ‘Partners in Wellbeing: Small Business Support’. This pilot material was expanded and refined to a sector-wide offering. Recognising the time commitment to complete the e-Learning, FCVic’s Professional Standards Committee approved the issue of a ‘Certificate of Completion: Foundations of Small Business Financial Counselling e-Learning Series’ for those members who completed all modules.

In 2022, the Diploma of Financial Counselling was revised, and a new unit CHCFIN010 Apply basic concepts of small business to financial counselling was added.

In September 2022, the FCVic Board endorsed the FCVic Small Business Scope of Practice. The Scope specifies the skills and training options for financial counsellors as follows.

Within 12 months of the Board’s endorsement of the Small Business Scope:

Financial counsellors who assist sole traders and individuals in business partnerships with their debts and finances, subject to their employing financial counselling agency policy, must:

• i. Be qualified and current members of FCVic
• ii. Satisfy one of the following education requirements:
  • a. Complete the Diploma of Financial Counselling unit CHCFIN010 Apply basic concepts of small business to financial counselling¹ or gain recognition of prior learning through a Registered Training Organisation for this unit
  • b. Complete the FCVic e-Learning series ‘Foundations of Small Business Financial Counselling’ (evidenced by completion certificate) or, when available, the updated FCVic e-Learning ‘Foundations’ modules which provide similar content to CHCFIN010
  • c. For full members of FCVic only, have completed relevant formal qualifications as approved by the FCVic Professional Standards Committee.²
• iii. Attend at least one annual CPD session on small business financial counselling.³

Small business financial counsellors providing more advanced financial counselling support to small business owners, including sole traders, partners in a partnership, company directors, or trustees, within the FCVic definition (see sections 4 and 6) must, in addition to the requirements above:

• i. Complete the FCVic e-Learning series ‘Foundations of Small Business Financial Counselling’ (evidenced by the completion certificate) or, when available, the updated FCVic e-Learning ‘Advanced’ modules⁴
• ii. Attend at least two annual CPD sessions in the category ‘Small Business In-Depth’ including recordings available from the FCVic CPD Library.

Aligning with the FCVic Small Business Scope of Practice, FCVic has updated its ‘Foundations of Small Business Financial Counselling e-Learning Series’. The ‘Foundations’ modules cover the same content as the Diploma Unit CHCFIN010 and are designed for financial counsellors assisting sole traders and individuals in business partnerships. The ‘Advanced’ modules provide more detailed and complex content for financial counsellors seeking to specialise, and support a wider range of small business owners, including company directors and trustees in addition to sole traders and partners. Successful completion of the ‘Advanced’ modules is required for a member to practice as a ‘small business financial counsellor’.

¹  Pending approval of the Diploma of Financial Counselling CHC51122.

²  Anyone who is a practicing rural financial counsellor at the commencement date of the Small Business Scope is deemed to have satisfied 6.ii.c.

³  Additional resources can be accessed from the FCVic CPD Library and FCA Toolkit.

⁴  For full members of FCVic only, this requirement may be satisfied if they have completed equivalent formal qualifications or training as approved by the FCVic Professional Standards Committee. Anyone who is a practicing rural financial counsellor at the commencement date of the Small Business Scope is deemed to have satisfied this requirement.