The Personal Finance Society is unlikely to resolve the funding confusion relating to the financial advice apprenticeship until the end of the year, Keith Richards has said.
The chief executive of the professional body admitted the funding issue was "disappointing" but said around 60 per cent of the funding had been secured and allowed youngsters to join the financial advice profession.
Several months ago the PFS said two cohorts of financial advice apprenticeships had to be put on hold due to problems with the government funding, which has been frozen.
But the government has denied there was a freeze and that employers will have to run apprenticeships without funding.
Mr Richards said it later emerged there had been confusion over funding which the Department for Education had allocated as existing cash and funding which was in addition to this.
The PFS, the educators which provide the apprenticeship and the Department for Education are now discussing the shortfall.
Mr Richards said: "That is where the shortfall occurred, which took the educators by surprise.
"We are still waiting for reallocation of additional funds but in the meantime a number of cohorts have gone through the programme.
"About 60 per cent of the funding has been secured and it is now in use but we have still had to defer some people.
"Rather than keep people hanging on we have said it is unlikely we will see any new funding come through until the end of the year."
Mr Richards said feedback from those who had gone through the apprenticeship programme already had been "excellent".
He added: "We are just sorry that some have had to be postponed."
Last year the government approved a standard for the financial advice apprenticeship scheme and said there would be funding of £9,000 available.
The standard published by the Skills Funding Agency is designed for apprentices with no previous experience and employers will set their own entry requirements – though level two English and maths will be required.
Since launching the Aspire apprenticeship programme 10 apprentices started the PFS programme in March while another 52 started in May unaffected by the funding issue.
damian.fantato@ft.com
