Building a Brighter Future: CFP Board's Future Workforce Initiative and Youth Engagement

As a child growing up in rural Ohio, I was active in my local chapter of 4-H, a national organization dedicated to developing and empowering youth. One of the many 4-H activities I participated in was a weeklong summer citizenship program for high school students. That program had such a strong impact on me that, once I was in college, I applied to be a summer program assistant with a 4-H program in a suburb of Washington, D.C. The leadership opportunities and lessons I learned from the program took hold, but I also fell in love with our capital city. That summer opened my eyes to the important role of nonprofit organizations and set me on the path that led to @CFP Board.

My story is one of many illustrating the power that groups like 4-H have to engage and educate young people and inspire their future careers. As CFP Board works to attract the next generation of CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER? professionals, we are engaging with youth-focused groups to showcase the many rewards of serving the public through a career in financial planning.

We are pleased to participate in the triennial @Girl Scouts of the USA (GSUSA) Convention this July. Our sponsorship and large, interactive exhibit booth provide an exciting opportunity to get thousands of girls and young women interested in financial planning careers. A diverse group of CFP? professionals and candidates for certification will staff our booth. We’ll play videos from our “I am a CFP? Pro” campaign, so the scouts can hear directly from financial planners about why they love their careers. Scouts can complete two financial planning-focused activity sheets — one about paying for college and another about budget basics — to earn their Buying Power and Financial Literacy Planner badges. And a live-action board game that simulates real-world financial challenges and decision points will demonstrate the importance of financial planning and the role CFP? professionals play in helping people reach their goals.

This GSUSA sponsorship is just one component of our Future Workforce Initiative — a new, multi-year program designed to create a national movement that increases awareness of financial planning as an attractive career choice. This initiative will educate students and their parents about the personal and societal benefits of financial planning careers and will promote enrollment in CFP Board Registered Programs to help draw younger, more diverse candidates to the profession. We plan to achieve these goals through additional event sponsorships, partnerships with extracurricular clubs, online and social media engagement, and interactive trainings, among other activities.

These are the kinds of creative new programs our profession needs to pursue to ensure its sustainability and capacity to meet the demand for personal financial advice. We have made important progress in growing and diversifying the CFP? professional population in recent years, thanks to a variety of CFP Board-led initiatives. We were especially excited to see the record-breaking numbers of women and diverse professionals who earned their CFP? certification in 2022. Nearly 30% of those new CFP? professionals were women, and about 15% were racially and ethnically diverse. Over 55% of the class was under age 35.

As we mark the 50th anniversary of CFP? certification, increasing the number and diversity of CFP? professionals remains one of CFP Board’s?top strategic priorities, because we know we must attract talent from every background if we are to continue advancing the profession and serving the needs of the public. The Future Workforce Initiative will accelerate our progress in this area.

We look forward to sharing additional initiative updates with you in the coming months. I also encourage you to connect with the CFP Board Center for Financial Planning team if you are interested in supporting the Future Workforce Initiative or other programs that will strengthen our profession’s talent pipeline.?