Business students at Griffith University have profited from a wealth of career and industry insights this week at the Nathan campus.
CFA Brisbane Chapter provided three representatives to attend the university’s Nathan campus and address Master of Finance and Investments and Master of Finance students on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday nights.
This is the latest example of the sustained and successful relationship that has been established between Griffith Business School and the Chartered Financial Analyst Institute, going back to 2013 when Griffith became the first university in Australia to take part in the prestigious CFA Institute University Recognition Program.
The link was consolidated earlier this year when Griffith announced two new postgraduate programs, Master of Finance and Master of Finance and Investments, had been admitted into the same program.
Board Member at CFA Society of Sydney (Brisbane area) and a financial professional with FIIG Securities, Jake Koundakjian (below), presented to the students on Monday night when he compared and explored what the textbook yields compared with practical industry experience.
“Depending on your pathway in the industry, it’s important to be able to decipher what you’ve read in the textbook when you’re in the trenches, facing a Bloomberg screen and have to make money from it,” he said.
Jake highlighted the CFA charter to educate not only industry colleagues but society in general. “From an industry standpoint we want more ethical and more educated people working in finance.
“If we can engage with education to the benefit of finance students as we have done this week, it is for the better of the industry worldwide and can only enhance the name and reputation of finance.”
The other speakers during the week were Ken Howard from Morgans, who examined equity valuations in practice, and Chris Catanzaro from BDO Securities who looked at graduate careers in corporate finance.
Dr Alexandr Akimov (left), Program Director of the Master of Finance and Master of Finance and Investments at Griffith Business School, believes the students will gain significantly from the CFA input.
“It is an effective means of training students about the industry’s most practical and relevant knowledge and skills,” he said. “They have also gained important advice on how to position themselves after graduating and how best to seek graduate employment.
“The CFA Institute and CFA Brisbane Chapter were very willing to work with us to improve standards and skills of graduates so students are industry-ready on leaving university.”
He added that Griffith University’s focus on sustainability dovetailed strongly with the CFA’s emphasis on ethics and standards of practice.