Preparing for the workforce of tomorrow

With a growing advice gap in Britain, there are huge opportunities for bright, talented new advisers to provide consumers with professional financial advice and to work in a host of roles and careers within financial services.

However, this is easier said than done. In financial services there is a definite need to see how we can better attract candidates into our industry.

One of the obstacles is that for potential candidates, it is very easy to read through the newspapers and get lost in the doom and gloom that the industry generates week after week.

Our industry has a lot more work to do now in attracting new talent and skills

So it is not surprising that job hunters gloss over the potential career opportunities our sector has to offer, as the benefits described are often too deeply buried under the controversy of what can be a complex and rapidly changing landscape.

This is coupled with the lack of clear entry routes to develop in roles, such as a financial adviser, along with a general lack of understanding of the sector and what it does. This is especially the case amongst younger people.

Much work has been done in the last five years to address the issue around financial planning education, as evidenced by the government’s decision to include financial education within the compulsory national curriculum for all maintained schools in England.

It will be part of citizenship lessons for 11 to 16-year-olds, together with stronger links in maths for all ages. This not only provides education for school children about managing their personal finances, but also opens up more awareness about jobs and careers in financial services, which has always been a challenge for our sector.

We know this will not solve the problem quickly, but we will hopefully see the benefits of this education in years to come when the younger generations join the working population.

However, our industry has a lot more work to do now in attracting new talent and skills, and one of the ways for businesses to do this is promoting more apprenticeships, building more schemes and ensuring job hunters know we are here waiting for them to join us.

The financial services sector has so much to offer in terms of career opportunities, in a variety of roles, and also in terms of creating more opportunities to attract more women into roles, particularly senior roles within businesses.

We should also not forget our new millennial workforce. Research among this age group has found that these workers of tomorrow are keen to own their own businesses, have flexibility in their working patterns and be at the forefront of our digital age.

They also want to be involved in worthwhile work that adds value to both their own work life and to that of their customers too. Financial advice roles would fit perfectly with the wants and needs of millennials.

Meanwhile, the government’s ambition to see 3m apprentices trained by 2020 continues to result in opportunities arising to support the area of apprenticeship learning in a number of ways.

One of them is through the evolution of The Apprenticeship Grant for Employers of 16 to 24 year-olds, which aims to attract businesses that would not otherwise be in a position to do so, enabling them to recruit young people into employment through the apprenticeship programme.

In the 2015 Autumn Statement, George Osborne announced a new apprenticeship levy on employers with the aim of covering the cost of apprentices’ training.

The apprenticeship levy, which will come into effect in April 2017, is an absolute reinforcement of the goal to establish recruitment and training through an apprenticeship approach. The firms paying the levy will, in return, access vouchers that can be used to fund training for their own apprentices.

With the increase of fees for university study, individuals may consider that the annual costs of such education and lifestyle is a weighty commitment when compared to the earnings attained by apprentices and the career progress that a structured learning programme can deliver. The two options provide a vastly different day-to-day experience and, if earnings and costs are removed from the decision, there is possibly a clear choice as to which direction will suit which individual.

Apprenticeships are not, however, without their professional qualification accreditation. There are many professional apprenticeship routes available in which the academic capability is challenged and recognised through professionally certified exams.

Some networks have worked in collaboration with a number of financial services organisations in the development of a series of financial services apprenticeship standards under the Trailblazers initiative, including administration and paraplanning roles.

The standards are developed in consultation with employers in order to deliver a training programme that effectively addresses the skills development required, along with a thorough assessment of those skills, enabling a meaningful accreditation and valuable experience by the end of the programme of learning.

While the government say they will do all they can, the financial services industry needs to do more to look at providing clearer entry routes into roles across the industry. In my role I regularly see young people with great expectations and aspirations coming out of college and university, but also struggle to get into financial services roles due to their lack of experience.

This is why apprenticeships are critical in providing the necessary development programmes to give young people, along with others with no experience, access to existing advisers, mentors and practical development to allow them to train and develop into our industry roles.

Working with our advisers we see that small financial services businesses can provide valuable work experience for apprenticeships – but we need to see more opportunities created to develop a healthy succession for the future.

Lisa Winnard is HR director at Sesame Bankhall Group