FTAdviser.com

Advertising

There is no shortage of bright, young talent queuing to make big bucks on Wall Street. Quite a contrast, in fact, to the recruitment problems of an ageing UK adviser industry where recruiting and training the next generation of financial advisers is one of those headaches that just will not shift.

Perhaps our industry can learn a lesson from Sandy Weill, philanthropist and former Citigroup chief executive and chairman, who established career academies to give young New Yorkers a break on Wall Street.

Career Academies UK is a charity inspired by Mr Weill's idea. Their aim is to support employers in raising the prospects and aspirations of 16 to 19 year olds. They deliver a two-year programme of study which is equivalent to three A-levels.

What is special about the career academy model is that, unlike traditional extra-curricular education-business links, it puts employer support at the heart of the young people's existing coursework: through guest speakers in the classroom; visits to the workplace; one-to-one mentoring; and a six-week paid internship for each student in the summer. A national accredited career academy curriculum means young people gain university-recognised UCAS points and are encouraged to take their studies further.

The good news for adviser firms is that the first and most popular career academy pathway is in finance.

Over 90 UK schools and colleges offer the career academy programme and almost 2000 students have participated to date. Based on their GCSE grades at the start of the programme, 40 per cent of them were likely to progress to university. By the end of the programme, 72 per cent actually do – and they are often the first in their family. By 2012, the expectation is to offer the career academy in 200 schools and colleges, reaching 7000 students a year .

The summer internship is the jewel in the crown of the career academy model. It takes place in the summer between the two years of the course. Employers provide a six-week paid work placement in a real operating environment, aiming to use the skills and knowledge the student has learned in school or college.

Internships are neither the traditional work experience offered to 15 and 16 year olds, nor mini versions of undergraduate schemes. Career academy students may have had less opportunity to develop workplace skills than undergraduates and are likely to need more support and training. With a year's business study under their belt, however, they can make a real contribution to the organisation and host companies report that working with interns enhances staff development and approaches to employee diversity.

Internship supervisors are given support, including a toolkit to use throughout the six weeks. They are also visited twice during the internship by the student's teacher or tutor for a meeting to discuss progress.

This process could revolutionise the way financial services employers and educationalists work in partnership to identify and prepare the next generation of employees. So the placements are not just beneficial for students. There are benefits for adviser firms and the health and diversity of the wider sector.

If the two-year programme goes well for the student, what next? Apprenticeships.

With the government hailing financial services as being central to the UK's economy, and its support for apprenticeships rapidly gathering speed, it is predicted that the number of people choosing this route into the financial services industry will spiral. In fact the government itself expects that one in five people will take up apprenticeships in the next decade, in line with its target of 400,000 by 2020.

In doing so they will establish apprenticeships as a mainstream option for 16-year-old school leavers. This means that with direct government encouragement, in the form of full funding, adviser firms can actively recruit school-leavers to become advisers. Or, with the same funding, a junior employee can be promoted from within to train as an adviser.

Could apprenticeships therefore be the answer to the present and future skills shortage in the independent advice sector? At the moment the answer is no. But this is only because awareness and take-up of the various apprenticeships available for advisers is low.

When you have a basic understanding of what the apprenticeship offers it is difficult to work out why this is. If your practice is looking to recruit and train new advisers, there are no disadvantages to embracing the apprenticeship scheme. Because the apprenticeship is one of the government's key initiatives aimed at improving the education and skills of 16 to 18 year-olds, each apprentice carries political weight and commitment. So if you know where to find it, support and guidance is available to see both employer and apprentice through the whole scheme.

So what is an apprenticeship in today's terms? It is simply a structure through which trainee advisers can acquire the basic skills, qualifications and experience to go about their business.

To use a relevant metaphor, it is to training what an Isa is to investment funds. The Isa is not a product in itself and neither is the apprenticeship; it is what it contains that is important. And like the financial incentives of the Isa's tax status, the apprenticeship carries government funding for the relevant qualifications and examinations worth thousands of pounds.

The work FundsNetwork is doing will help adviser firms to get the best out of offering apprenticeships, for both them and their apprentices. We will help them to understand how the schemes are funded and how they work so that they can take advantage of the frameworks developed by the Financial Services Skills Council across everything from financial advice to investment administration.

The career academy and apprenticeships are a fantastic opportunities for young people to explore our industry. They offer a way for new recruits and existing staff to attain a professional qualification and demonstrate competence on the job.

FundsNetwork is actively involved in partnership with the Career Academy UK and expects the popularity of this and apprenticeships to increase. Key to their success, however, is building awareness across the industry that they are a way to attract and retain some of the best talent, as well as making school and college leavers know that these opportunities exist in financial services.

Far from Wall Street, the headache may be easing.

Sara Powell is head of training and professional development for Fidelity FundsNetwork