The SimplyBiz Group's New Model Business Academy is launching an apprenticeship scheme to allow firms to train the advisers of the future.
The programme has been launched and firms can apply for funding from the scheme, with the first cohort of apprentices starting on 3 April.
Tom Hegarty, managing director of the NMBA, said it would be providing firms with the support they needed to help them train their apprentices, but he also warned advisers would need to set aside time to coach and support them.
He said: "I think we are approaching a critical time. At the moment demand for advice is exceeding supply and we are hitting a critical point where we have not got enough advisers within the sector to serve the public.
"Since the Retail Distribution Review, training organisations have mainly disappeared from the profession and there have been a lot fewer entry routes for new advisers to get into the profession.
"It is expensive to put people through the exams and give them the coaching and mentoring they need. If we could make the cost smaller and give those firms a lot of support in bringing those advisers through, then they will not need to do as much."
The NMBA has been approved by the Skills Funding Agency as a registered apprenticeship training provider, which means it must be rated by Ofsted.
Mr Hegarty hoped this level of scrutiny would act as a positive selling point over adviser academies owned by large companies such as Old Mutual Wealth.
He said that since NMBA asked firms to register their interest for the government funded scheme, around 250 had come forward.
Mr Hegarty said: "The budget that has been allocated isn't as significant as we had hoped but it will be enough for a few dozen in the first year, which we then hope will escalate into three figures in the subsequent years."
He added that while NMBA is opening the application process for firms which already have apprentices lined up, it would also be going to visit colleges and universities in order to sell the idea of financial advice as a career.
Since most financial advice firms are too small to pay the government's apprenticeship levy, the scheme will be funded under "co-investment", where the firm pays 10 per cent towards the cost of the apprenticeship and the government pays the rest up to the maximum funding band, which in the case of financial advice is £9,000.
NMBA has teamed up with the Chartered Insurance Institute to direct its apprentices towards its qualifications.
Mr Hegarty said: "It is very much a module approach and it tackles the relevant knowledge needed for someone who is inexperienced in financial services.
"The other programmes, we felt, were more suitable for someone who has been in financial services for a period of time and have a certain amount of prior knowledge."
The scheme is currently only available in England since apprenticeships are a devolved matter.
damian.fantato@ft.com
