I’ve worked in financial services since I was 18 in various roles from being a cashier in a bank to my current role as a financial planner for Beckett Financial Services.
Did I leave school with a plan to work in financial services? No. Did I leave school knowing much about personal finance? No. Did I know what a financial planner did? I didn’t even know that it was a job!
Thankfully financial services swallowed me up and spat me out as a financial planner. A job that I love for the benefits it has brought to my life, but more importantly the benefits I am able to bring to my clients.
So, when my son was born in 2016, the paternal side of me woke up and I decided that although my son would have guidance from me on careers and financial education, others unfortunately would not be so lucky and I could do something to address this.
We know that the demographic of financial advisers is summed up as ‘male, pale and stale’.
At 36 I can see the benefit and need for the industry to have a younger generation come through. Not only do we need younger people, but we need more diversity.
So why am I here preaching on something that has widely been publicised as a problem for the industry? Well, not only am I a financial planner, I am also an enterprise adviser.
No, I’m not a Star Trek super fan. Instead, it means that I go and speak to students in schools to promote careers in
financial planning and also provide financial education.
I became an enterprise adviser through the New Anglia Local Enterprise Partnership. I sat down with their enterprise co-ordinator and he explained to me how schools are screaming out for support from those in the world of business to share their experiences and knowledge with students.
I have been allocated a school local to me that I am now regularly in contact with. They contact me to explain when they have room in lesson plans for me to come in and speak to groups of students.
The sessions have ranged from discussing the pro’s and con’s of debt through to me explaining my career journey, exams I have taken, what a financial planner does and how to access the industry.
We’re all busy so how can I manage two jobs? Simply put, being an enterprise adviser takes up no more than two to three hours per month from my role at most.
Quite often, there will be months pass by where I haven’t been needed by the school, especially around exam periods or summer holidays.
They know I am here ready to support them when they need it.
As an enterprise adviser I meet regularly with the school where we discuss strategies for how students can be supported. The school themselves are measured against the Gatsby Benchmarks which came about from a 2013 report by Sir John Holman on what career guidance in England would be like if it were good by international standards.
The eight Gatsby benchmarks are:
1. A stable careers programme
2. Learning from career and labour market information
3. Addressing the needs of each pupil
4. Linking curriculum learning to careers
5. Encounters with employers and employees
6. Experiences of workplaces
7. Encounters with further and higher education
8. Personal guidance
As an enterprise adviser I play a key role in helping the school demonstrate how they meet these benchmarks. I am supported by the LEP and other Enterprise Advisers locally to me, which is great from a networking perspective.
There are 38 LEP’s across the country. You can find them here at then click through to their own website. Simply contact the LEP with your interest to be an enterprise adviser and they will be in touch via their enterprise co-ordinator to see where you can help.
I used to have the view that schools didn’t do enough to educate students on careers or personal finance. I used to think that there was a blame to be placed with the government as they didn’t seem to be pushing this agenda.
Being an enterprise adviser has made me see that the importance of careers guidance is being pushed from the top and that schools are in fact, very keen for outside help to support their students with understanding what the world of work really looks like.
We, as a financial planner community, need to get to work at a ‘grass roots’ level to support our local schools. We have plenty of experience to share and by spending just a few hours with students, we can help them see the need for more financial planners and that it is an accessible career to many, not just a privileged few.
Many students are surprised when I explain that I went to a state secondary school and didn’t go to university.
If you agree that there is a need to promote the profession and fill the gap of advisers that will be here within the next 10 years, reach out to your LEP.
If you agree that younger people need more personal financial education, reach out to your LEP.
We need to support our schools and colleges directly and address the need for younger financial planners at its source. Being an enterprise adviser is, in my opinion, the best way for us to do this.
Anthony West is a senior private client consultant at Beckett Financial Services and an enterprise adviser at the New Anglia Local Enterprise Partnership.
