While school days are a distant memory for a lot of people, there is one feeling that never fades: the sickly nervous churning of the belly the morning of an exam.
And a lot of people are mistaken when they believe the end of school marks the last time they will ever enter an exam hall or log on to take a test.
A lot of careers nowadays, especially in financial services, require further qualifications past those you receive at school or university.
And as thousands of students gear up to take their exams this month, it got me thinking about whether exams are indeed that difficult when compared to applying learned skills in the real world.
To become an adviser, individuals must hold a level four financial advice qualification and achieve competent adviser status.
Those taking their exams with the Chartered Insurance Institute will need to sit six exams in total.
Now don’t get me wrong, the idea of sitting six exams is not my idea of fun, but these are primarily geared towards technical knowledge and assessed via written examination.
The ability to empathise, listen and deal with clients’ problems is what will set apart an average adviser and an exceptional one.
It is down to the individual to sit and learn the content, process and internalise it and then be able to answer questions correctly on what they have learned. This is not dissimilar to what we all had to do at school.
We all learn in different ways and some people prefer to watch videos or listen to podcasts to take in the information, while others prefer to read and take notes.
All are valid ways of learning but the general format of exams does not tend to alter. You learn, you get quizzed, you get a qualification.
Now comes the hard part: putting it into practice and sitting in front of a client.
The leap to become client-facing
Speaking to individuals who have been carrying out their studies via an adviser academy, their anxiety has become more noticeable now they are close to having to meet and advise clients for real.
No, the exams weren’t necessarily easy, but they seemed a breeze compared to having to deal with a difficult client while being new to the profession.
So how do we make this jump easier?
This is something academies and training programmes have been getting better at over time.
A few years back, a lot of the focus on training advisers was on technical knowledge but now there has been more of a shift to paying equal attention to soft skills.
These are things such as how to communicate with clients, problem solving, critical thinking and time management to build rapport and show the benefits of advice.
These skills are so important that it could be argued soft skills is not a very fitting name.
While technical knowledge is essential, the ability to empathise, listen and deal with clients’ problems is what will set apart an average adviser and an exceptional one.
And those advisers who have these skills will be the ones who have satisfied clients and will be able to attract and retain a good client base.
It is all well and good having a vast amount of knowledge, but if you cannot effectively communicate this to a client and show them how to improve their finances and plan for later life then all that information becomes useless.
And this is what sets advisers apart.
After all, a paraplanner has technical knowledge but there is a reason they are not as client facing – the soft skills aren’t there.
So it is easy to see why new advisers are more concerned and worried about learning soft skills than studying technical knowledge.
But help is at hand with academies doing role plays showing trainees how to talk to clients while also running through fact finds and how to handle more vulnerable clients and build rapport.
There is even the emergence of virtual reality to run through client advice sessions in a controlled setting so when the time comes trainees feel more than ready and have had plenty of practice.
To be honest, these skills are so important that it could be argued soft skills is not a very fitting name.
Maybe they should be called ‘people skills’ or ‘professional skills’ instead – this certainly seems more fitting, but that is a whole different article indeed.
Amy Austin is news editor at FT Adviser
