FTAdviser.com

The government’s proposed commitment to apprenticeships for young people, which brings with it a significant funding promise, has helped to bring the spotlight back on apprenticeships.

Last week was national Apprenticeship Week 2010, so now seems as good a time as any to talk about some of the benefits of the apprenticeship programme for financial services employers.

The word ‘apprentice’ may bring to mind blue-collar occupations, but it is becoming increasingly recognised as a new skills pathway for sectors like financial services. Many employers are keen to find a new source of recruits, yet many are still unaware of the apprenticeship scheme.

Apprenticeships are also an important way of employees attaining the relevant qualifications which have become so necessary in the highly-regulated financial services industry.

The apprenticeship programme mirrors what a lot of financial services companies are already doing and is designed to work in tandem with in-house training structures. Apprenticeships combine professional qualifications, competency training and soft skills to deliver the whole package and allow the non-graduate workforce a real opportunity to take part in a cost-effective, structured training programme.

With undergraduate fees becoming an increasing financial burden on young people, it is likely that more and more bright school-leavers will be looking for effective alternatives to university. Apprenticeships offer the future workforce a way of gaining the relevant qualifications and skills on the job, and a way of avoiding the debt which fulltime education can incur.

Apprenticeships also demonstrate an investment in people. In the long term, this inevitably effects employee motivation, productivity, the quality of new recruits and staff attrition rates in your company.

I believe apprenticeships are the skills solution for the next generation. Employers who embrace this now give themselves a competitive edge over future recruitment and staff development, and effectively prepare themselves for when the market picks up.

Sylvia Perrins is chief executive, National Skills Academy for Financial Services

This is all well and good, but we need people that can “produce” a profit. Oh my goodness what a terrible person I am, wanting to make a profit out of my business. That is not what financial services is about at all! Advice should be free, while staff should be paid and we should be responsible for the advice our staff give clients. That methodology would prove we are treating customers fairly though, despite the obvious looming bankruptcy.

With all the liabilities that follow the owners of IFA practices to their grave, how can we unleash apprentices on the public, when we as experienced advisers, have enough trouble convincing people of our value? Would you want an apprentice organising your finances, mortgage or pension?

Last time we looked at apprentices under New Deal. Over half did not bother to turn up to interview due to a hangover from the night before and the best of the bunch who we took on did not know where a stamp went on an envelope-honest, he stuck it in the middle!