The Sesame Bankhall Group’s ‘adviser school’ opened its doors for the first intake of students in April, with the intention of attracting the younger generation to the intermediary world.

Ivan Martin, Executive Chairman at the Sesame Bankhall Group, said: “The lack of clear entry routes and career paths for people coming into our profession is a real issue, and The Financial Adviser School delivers a practical solution.

“We will be equipping people with the all round skills to become the advice professionals and entrepreneurs of the future.”

Following this launch, the group are preparing to offer their trainees the advisory experience that they require, through employment in their very own ‘in house’ brokerage.

The proposition would in effect allow the novices to begin trading under a registered name in the period after gaining initial qualifications, but before completing the full training for the QCF Level 4, which Sesame said would take 18 months.

Jared Aitken, Media Relations Manager at Sesame Bankhall Group, said: “The students who study on our course come from a variety of backgrounds. Whilst some may have friends or relatives in the industry already, who they can approach for work experience, others are not so fortunate.

“We are keen for all of our trainees to have access to the hands on experience that they need to develop their skill sets. We will, in effect, have a mini national IFA.”

Master brokers and lenders alike are applauding Sesame’s initiative in creating a channel for young graduates or those with a strong interest in the financial industry to be given the required education and assistance to enter the intermediary market, at a time when the broking world appears to be experiencing the effects of an ‘ageing population’.

Lucy Barrett, Director at Vantage Finance, said: “I very rarely meet anyone who strikes me as being very young in the industry. This suggests that there is a lack of people starting out a career in the industry fresh out of college or university.

“Having a formal course dedicated to training potential IFA’s would certainly help to promote the industry as it can be daunting given that there isn’t a great deal of educational support at present.”

She added though that experience, which cannot easily be fast-tracked, is held in high regard within the industry.

Bob Havenhand, of South Yorkshire Property Consultants, also expressed his concerns over whether the course, even with the working experience, would be intensive enough to teach everything that needs to be learned in order for an individual to be successful in the profession.

“There is huge diversity between the different types of brokers/advisers, and many different specialist areas,” he said.

“I do not think that a one stop ‘broker/adviser school’ would satisfy the individual needs of any of the categories and simultaneously, in some categories trainees would be taught information that would not be useful to them when they specialised.”

However, whether Sesame’s adviser school will succeed in teaching young hopefuls everything they need to know or not, few within the industry will argue that something needs to be done to nurture the next generation of intermediaries.

By Katie-Jill Rowland