Paul Stocks, financial services director at Dobson and Hodge, said Mr Sunak’s jobs scheme could be “very positive” if it could “feed into apprenticeships for new advisers”, given there was also the financial cost of achieving the required qualifications.
Alan Lakey, director at Highclere Financial, agreed. He thought the scheme would only work for advice if it “fitted in” with the approved schemes from the Personal Finance Society.
As the scheme stands, by providing minimum wage, it was “certainly not going to entice graduates”, Mr Lakey said.
These feelings were echoed by the industry’s professional body, the Personal Finance Society.
Chief executive of the PFS, Keith Richards, said: “Since financial services is a profession, it requires a structured career plan covering several years.
“The job creation scheme must therefore be properly integrated with other initiatives, such as apprenticeships for example, to ensure that there is a clear pathway for young people from entering the profession through to achieving a licence so that they can practice as a fully competent professional.”
Open to abuse
Warnings were also sounded that companies may abuse the scheme, using the initiative to ditch older, more expensive staff members to recruit young, “free” employees.
Scott Gallacher, director at Rowley Turton, said: “We will see larger companies look at this and make someone on £20,000 redundant because they can pay young people minimum wage for free.
“From an adviser’s perspective, it would be especially bad if providers got rid of experienced admin people to recruit new employees who did not know the ropes.”
Although not concerned about abuse, Jason Hollands, managing director at Tilney, thought it would have “very little overall impact” on the financial advice sector.
Mr Hollands said most advice firms were small in size and were simply too engrossed in supporting their clients and revenues to look at new hires.
He added: “It takes time, as well as money, to take on [new staff] and develop them and the incentives being talked about are unlikely to cover the costs.”
imogen.tew@ft.com
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