Advancing Her Career With A Postgraduate Diploma in Financial Planning

A year into the role, Milandré enrolled for the Postgraduate Diploma in Financial Planning at Milpark Education while working full-time. Nobody asked her to. Her employer didn't force her. She could have settled in and let the years do the work.

She could already see what experience does for a financial planner. And she wanted to close that gap.

A client with a complicated tax situation. 
A retirement plan that needed real expertise.
And an estate planning question that needed more than the basics.

Milandré wanted to be the one with the insights. The good answers. Input that people could trust. "Having the postgrad gives you something to stand on. It's not just saying you're a financial advisor. It's showing that you're putting in the effort to be one of the excellent ones."

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Studying for a Postgraduate Diploma in Financial Planning while working full-time is manageable in theory. In practice, it asks for more than most people budget for. Milandré worked a full day at the practice. After hours, she liked to decompress with some exercise or settle into a relaxing meal with her husband. And then get into some studying. Admittedly, her energy and motivation fluctuated at night, so she left the serious studying for the weekends.

This meant she had to give up most weekends. Social plans were on the back burner. Even holidays meant an extra bag for all the books and notes. Her husband jokes about it now, saying, "We're travelling lighter now." She recalls with a smile that "back then, everything had to come along."

What made the load lighter was the people around her. Her husband absorbed the weight of the difficult periods. Mom sent food packages before exams. Colleagues offered the kind of practical context that study guides can point toward but never fully provide. Milpark helped too. One subject at a time, each completed before the next begins, a structure that suited the way she thinks. The lecturers were also accessible and genuinely helpful, and despite studying remotely, she never felt alone.

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The Financial Planning Environment module was the one she had been quietly dreading. It was the only closed-book exam in the programme.

Tax-heavy, calculation-intensive, the kind of paper that requires knowledge that has been absorbed rather than looked up. She knew it was coming. She prepared for it.

But then came another curveball. The exam was scheduled during the same time they were moving from Potchefstroom to Pretoria. "It really felt like a mountain," she says. "I didn't know how I was going to get through everything."

She didn't lower her standard. She raised her effort. She studied harder than she had for anything before it.

And today she says this is the one area of her studies that she uses most often. The tax questions that once felt beyond her are now the ones she can answer in the room, without hesitation, without needing to escalate. The hardest part of the journey turned out to be the most useful.

Milandré had successfully completed her postgraduate diploma, which became the stepping stone that led her to complete the FPI Capstone Course and achieve her CFP designation.

After two years of early mornings, sacrificed weekends, and holidays with a boot full of study notes, she could have been forgiven for simply enjoying the quiet.

Going to work. Coming home. No exam on the horizon.

Then an email arrived from Milpark.

She assumed it was about the CFP Capstone opportunity the Financial Planning Institute was extending to top graduates. She read further and realised that she had been named top student in her cohort. The Ascor Prize was hers. The recognition from the industry and her peers meant a great deal. But the real gold was celebrating it with the people who had been part of the journey. Her husband, her parents, her friends. "They went out of their way to make it a memorable moment," she says.

And underneath all of it, something quieter. She did this for herself.

“People ask why you put in all that extra time," she says. "Standing there and realising the hard work does get acknowledged, that was a special moment." A moment she holds dear as another stepping stone on her way to the top.

"Be clear about your why before you start. The road will ask for things you didn't budget for."

Milandre was clear about her motivation and was richly rewarded. Apply today to make the next move in your career.