Financial Services Professional

On a financial services professional apprenticeship course, you’ll help work with companies or individuals to plan for their financial futures.

Companies in the financial services industry that handle or advise on money include retail and corporate banking, investment management, investment consultancy, investment banking, mortgages, and life and pensions.

The apprenticeship in financial services will teach you all you need to know to become a highly competent industry professional. Core modules will equip you with the knowledge, skills, and experience required of all individuals, beginning or progressing to this level in financial services. At the same time, specialised options will prepare you for a specific business area.

These include retail banking, corporate banking, investment banking, investment management, operations, and workplace pensions. Regardless of your route, as a financial services professional, you can apply for the professional membership level after completing your studies.

What you’ll learn

On a financial services professional apprenticeship course, you’ll learn to:

• Develop ethically sound and trustworthy relationships with internal and/or external clients/customers to provide the groundwork for long-term cooperation. Collaborate
•  with clients/customers to identify their specific financial services requirements. Help clients/customers and fulfil their best interests, offer flexible and innovative solutions, combining products and excellent service to their situation.
• Execute all required steps under agreed-upon procedures and processes to ensure that the organisation’s relevant policies within their area of competence are met. 
• Take the initiative to meet challenging individual and team performance goals while adhering to organisational policy, values, standards, and industry-specific regulatory requirements. 
• Identify and communicate risks to key management or compliance personnel inside the organisation while also understanding and following the appropriate business process for dealing with them. 
• Contribute to developing strategic and operational plans for their area of responsibility. Manage and report on the effectiveness of specific project components within your area of responsibility. 
• Plan and organise your work and time in advance, clearly outlining priorities for meeting commitments, KPIs, and deadlines.
• Quickly analyse information and make sound decisions. 
• Deal with clients/customers/colleagues efficiently at all organisational levels as required. 
• Establish/maintain strong, positive working relationships with clients/colleagues/suppliers. Consistently assist and collaborate with coworkers to achieve objectives. Understand the purpose of your team, how your team fits into the business, and how your team’s activities impact others. 
• Identify ways to improve service/process delivery and performance by sharing and going beyond your team for best practices. 
• Keep current on sector-relevant legal/regulatory changes and alert others to the implications as required. Seek and act on criticism to enhance your performance. 

Entry requirements

You’ll usually need:

• Depending on the employer, but likely A-levels 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 two distinct assessment methods: 

• A Work-Based Project 
• A Structured Panel Interview based on the Portfolio of Evidence 

Restrictions and requirements

You’ll need to:

• pass enhanced background checks

Duration, level, subjects and potential salary upon completion

Apprenticeship standard

More information about the Level 6 Financial Services Professional 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.