Your IndustryOct 30 2014

Opportunity knocks for next generation

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It is good to see that apprenticeships are firmly back on the national agenda, and for once financial services is no exception.

For years we have struggled to attract new entrants into financial planning, but the current shortage of qualified and experienced planners – and paraplanners in particular – is becoming a real problem. Firms are reporting that they are finding it very hard to get the calibre of staff that they need to join a strong team. Something needs to change and soon. Perhaps the answer lies in the new plans for the development of apprenticeships which are under way.

20 years ago hardly anyone had heard of a paraplanner, let alone used one. The adviser did all their own administration, research, analysis and report writing, and consequently had far less client time as a result. Back then, paraplanning had nowhere near the recognition that it does now. How things have moved on. Paraplanning fulfills a key role in the financial planning business, and it is particularly so for accredited financial planning firms, all of which use a paraplanning function. It is of particular interest therefore that in development at the moment is a new apprenticeship in paraplanning. This will give a formal structure and career path for anyone wanting to move across to or up to a paraplanning role. As the debate over the high level of university fees continues it is quite possible that switched-on school leavers will drive demand for such apprenticeships that offer an alternative route to professional status.

It is fair to say that apprenticeships have had a fairly rocky ride in financial services, for a variety of reasons. Historically, they were bureaucratic and often had a fairly tenuous connection to any job role that most people in financial services would recognise. The new approach is hoping to turn this on its head: it will identify the core knowledge, skills and behaviours that someone needs in order to fulfill the role of paraplanner.

And therein lies one of the biggest challenges of the development work. While a huge amount has been done already to define the role – and initial thinking is that there might be two roles, to take account of the diversity across firms – there is still a lot more to be done. The only way the developers stand a chance of getting it right is for as many paraplanners as possible to get involved with scoping out the role and its requirements so that the resulting framework carries weight with firms.

As young people start to look for a genuine alternative to university, there will be an increased demand for apprenticeships in professions like financial planning. Apprenticeships have been available in accountancy for a long time, and are taken up in large numbers. Professional qualifications form a key part of those apprenticeships, so there is ample opportunity to do the same with the Certificate in Paraplanning, FPSB UK’s level four qualification which tests a combination of knowledge and skills needed by a paraplanner. If a greater number of bright young people start looking to become paraplanners through an apprenticeship route, what a superb opportunity for the profession. It is an exciting prospect for a genuine work-based alternative which would not be a second-best option to graduate programmes.

But – and it is a big but – the content of the framework has to be right. The proposal is for it to be at level four, in recognition of the technical nature of the requirements of the role.

It is an excellent opportunity to shape the future of paraplanning, and we would encourage all paraplanners to do what they can to feed into the process, to make it as sound and true to the real work situation as possible. In the expectation that occurs, I am sure that the financial planning profession will be the ultimate winner.

Sue Whitbread is communications director of the Institute of Financial Planning