Debt Adviser

On a debt adviser apprenticeship course, you’ll help assess a customer’s full circumstances and provide helpful advice.

A debt adviser may work for a local government, a charity, or a for-profit organisation that offers free debt counselling to customers. In this role, you will assess a customer’s overall situation and provide suggestions to assist them in managing their debts more efficiently.

This advice must be of high quality and constantly adhere to laws, standards, and principles. Typical responsibilities are making relevant questions to understand the customer’s past decisions, present issues, and future objectives.

Next, you’ll assess the customer’s entire picture, including income and expenditure, family arrangement, debt responsibilities, and any factors influencing wellness, vulnerabilities, or health, and utilise that information to create a custom budget and an accurate customer financial statement.

You’ll deal with private and sensitive information while advising clients about all available suitable choices, ranging from budgeting advice to formal bankruptcy remedies.

You will get familiar with all potential debt solutions to fully assess their advantages and downsides for each customer’s specific circumstance.

What you’ll learn

On a debt adviser apprenticeship course, you’ll learn to:

• Identify the consumer and/or any customer advocate and use laws and organisational procedures. Determines the impact of vulnerabilities on a customer’s ability to manage their finances and general well-being.
• Creates a realistic financial statement and budget for the customer by eliciting all necessary facts via open-and-closed inquiries, including a root-cause analysis. (This is often done in sensitive or difficult circumstances for the customer.)
• Represent payment offers and client circumstances to creditors, adjusting the approach required to get the best possible outcome. 
• Encourage changes in consumer behaviour that are in the client’s best interests, such as adopting lifestyle adjustments that reduce outgoings.
• Determine external stakeholders who have a direct impact on the customer. Creates and maintains a network of stakeholders needed to execute casework effectively and efficiently.
• Recognise your value inside the team and the impact of your actions on others who work in it. 
• Collaborate with and assist colleagues and stakeholders within and outside the organisation to achieve goals while working independently. Create and maintain good connections inside your organisation.
• Employ organisational quality standards to provide effective outcomes while conforming to risk, regulatory, and governance limitations. Activity is planned and prioritised to handle competing work demands effectively.
• Adapt the advice based on the customer’s history, such as previous advice and whether it was followed. Consider your evidence analysis and the application of the Regulatory Framework to what is most likely to perform successfully, as tailored to the specific client. 
• Suggest a product, a product combination, or direct the customer to other sources of assistance. Explain why the recommended debt solution is the best choice for customers who do not want to continue with the given guidance (some may be stubborn). Consider the customer’s preferences, the length of debt relief, and future events when deciding if additional choices are appropriate.
• Communicate with customers, colleagues, professional contacts, and third parties via written and spoken communication. Give a detailed explanation. To get a positive outcome, use empathy with the customer.
• Recognise, monitor, and respond to debt advice events (such as a change in circumstances) that may need a new or updated evaluation.

Entry requirements

You’ll usually need:

• Depending on the employer, but likely GCSEs or equivalent qualifications or relevant experience.
• Apprentices without level 2 English and maths will need to achieve this before taking the end-point assessment.

Assessment methods

The End Point Assessment comprises three distinct assessment methods: 

• Multiple-Choice Test
• Professional discussion underpinned by a portfolio
• Role Simulation 

Duration, level, subjects and potential salary upon completion

Apprenticeship standard

More information about the Level 3 Debt Adviser Apprenticeship standard can be found here.

Apprenticeship end point assessment

For more information about the End Point Assessment Process, please read the Institute of Apprenticeships’ information page.