After 10 years working in travel and recruitment, 30-year-old Melody Rocca was earning good money and needed some guidance on how to invest it. But instead of handing the hard decisions over to a planner, she decided to bone up on finance and investment herself to manage her money independently.

"You have to be financially literate to be wealthy," Ms Rocca explains, adding that other people looking after your money - even highly trained professionals - are just not going to have the same vested interest that you do.

Last year she enrolled in the Securities Institute's Diploma in Financial Markets. "It opened up a whole new world of investment strategies that I hadn't considered," she says. She transferred her money into a cash-management trust. She holds investments in several stocks, in addition to a $100,000 "mock portfolio" she uses to practise her skills. Ms Rocca has even revved up her budgeting and saving strategies and is on course to retire at 45.

"It's very achievable if you sit down and look at it - you have just got to be a bit committed," she says.

Ms Rocca is one of a growing number of Australians who are enrolling in finance and investment courses.

The Securities Institute of Australia has more than 13,500 students enrolled in formal finance education courses, as well as the many thousands who participate in short courses and continuing professional development programs each year.

New courses are continually being developed in response to a growing need for succinct and specific coverage of particular topics of interest to investors, says institute managing director Penny Le Couteur.

"One particularly popular new course has been Stockmarkets and Products, which covers investment solutions using stockmarket products and frameworks for a successful approach to investment," she says.

Ms Le Couteur says there are many factors behind surging student enrolments.

"Planning for retirement is fast becoming a priority for many baby boomers and, as a result of the compulsory superannuation regime, super is now second to housing as the prime asset of most families. Share ownership has also increased significantly.

"All this means that an increasing number of people want to know and understand the principles of how to manage their finances, in addition to seeking advice from the professionals.

"Getting the right strategy in place that will deliver the best outcome for the least risk requires real knowledge and expertise, and more and more people are signing up to do courses to learn how to manage their own finances," she adds.

Courses offered by Australian Stock Exchange Investor Education attract almost 17,000 students each year.

Gaye Cameron, a Beaconsfield mother of two, launched an investment club with some friends from her children's playgroup after completing a series of ASX courses, including Tracking Your Share Investments and Developing Your Investment Portfolio. "We wanted to do something different - to make a bit of money and have a bit of fun," she says.

Concerns about having enough money on hand for when she retires also motivated her studies. Indeed, the knowledge has already helped her family avoid potentially expensive mistakes such as going ahead with the purchase of an investment property without fully assessing the time and costs involved in managing it and without evaluating other investment options.

The ASX is progressively introducing online courses to complement its existing lecture and self-learning formats.

"This provides people with an alternate learning method to suit their needs," says ASX spokesman Gervase Greene. "For example, there is no difference proportionately between the numbers of regional and metropolitan shareowners, so providing online access to learning makes sense.

What is on offer

The Securities Institute offers two open-entry courses, the Diploma of Financial Advising and the Diploma of Financial Markets. These aim to impart a broad understanding of investment to help students develop a wealth-creation strategy and to also understand wealth protection requirements.

The Graduate Diploma of Financial Planning offers a range of advanced investment-related subjects for students with approved tertiary qualifications.

Other short and long courses are also available.

The Australian Stock Exchange has a range of introductory to advanced programs.

Its free Getting Started in Shares kicks off with a pre-test of 10 multiple-choice questions to determine whether the course is appropriate to your level of knowledge.

Courses covering shares, options and warrants for more experienced investors are also available.

In addition, Investor Day and Investor Hour lectures are useful tools.