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The remit of many of the professional bodies seems to be not just to monitor those already in financial services, but to expand the reach further, and raise the standards generally of financial services qualifications.

That at least seems to be the motivation behind the latest initiative from the Securities & Investment Institute. It has launched a discounted offer for its exams for students, low-earners and the unemployed. The scheme will see those that qualify gain qualifications in Introduction to Investment, financial regulation and principles of regulation.

At £100, the rate is still not a complete bargain, especially if you're unemployed or on a low income, but it is an incentive for someone with some small amount of money coming in to save for something that could get them out of their current situation.

The professional bodies have to show nonetheless that they are prepared to do their bit for getting people into the profession, using imaginative methods to draw them in.

But perhaps what is important is that the SII has seen there is a huge well of untapped talent out there that it is trying to reach. In the way that the ifs School of Finance is campaigning hard to get personal finance greater prominence in schools, trying to instil good financial management at an early age, so the SII is realising that it is not enough simply to wait for people to walk through its doors.

For a start, few young adults think of personal finance as their first choice of career, so for people to actually walk through their door off their own initiative would have meant a considerable journey for them to have got there. If the SII is making it easier for people to consider financial services as an option, even if it is just a pragmatic means for getting qualified for something, then it is at least broadening the net and bring in new people.

The challenge is to convert this pragmatism into something approaching enthusiasm for the subject itself. Once those that have taken the exam realise the possibilities - the intellectual challenge and the possibility of producing a profitable portfolio, they will see the attractions that financial services has for many people. Just as long there is adequate quality control in the first place.

Control beyond retirement

Yet another survey suggests that many of those in retirement plan to work beyond their retirement age. According to an Aegon UK survey, more than half of those aged over 50 would be thinking of working beyond 65. The question, as with anything about changes to one's life, is whether they have any control over this, that is whether they would be doing this out of choice. The challenge for many is the fact that they may be forced into working in retirement because of their depleted pensions. If they are forced to take the first thing that comes along, this hardly bodes for a happy 'retirement'. Nonetheless, according to Aegon UK's research, only 16 per cent of the baby boomer population accounted for this group. This suggests that many see the value of work, and plan to keep doing so well into their more advanced years.