Academy trains workforce of financial-planning advisors

Citation

(2010), "Academy trains workforce of financial-planning advisors", Industrial and Commercial Training, Vol. 42 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/ict.2010.03742eab.003

Academy trains workforce of financial-planning advisors

Article Type: Notes and news From: Industrial and Commercial Training, Volume 42, Issue 5

Santander has created an academy in the UK to train around 200 new financial-planning advisors each year to work in Bancassurance, which is the selling of insurance and banking products through the same channel.

The Abbey branch of Spanish banking giant Santnader began planning two years ago to expand its force of financial advisors to gain more of the Bancassurance market.

Candidates for the academy have to gain a Certificate in Financial Planning. They are then expected to finish their on-the-job training with support from a development manager within three months.

The trainees are split, 30 percent internal and 70 percent external. Abbey recruited the internal trainees from its staff of personal banking advisors, while the externals came from successful sales roles in banking and other sectors.

The academy is a ten-week blended-learning course, incorporating a custom-built online teaching platform named Workspace. In 2008 it changed from external to internal trainers. This approach means that trainees are now learning from peers with recent and practical experience.

The academy has beaten its projected target, successfully training 230 financial-planning advisors. Meanwhile, the integration of e-learning has reduced the cost of training each advisor from £1,782 to £543.

“Trainers helped me to want to be the best advisor I can be, not for points but morally,” said one advisor who took the course. “They helped me to understand the importance of my role and the duty of care I have for customers.”

Another added: “I have worked in finance for ten years and this is the best training I have had.”

A good way to judge the success of the new financial planning advisors is to measure the business they generate within three months of completing on-the-job training, and then compare that figure with the business generated by more experienced advisors. In 2008 the new advisors outperformed the average for their position, generating £251,000 per month against the mean of £247,000 for the whole of the financial-planning-advisor population. This also represents a 47 percent increase on the 2007 average.

“Our delegates are inspired to build a fantastic career with Santander, caring for our customers’ long-term financial health,” said head of learning Jayne Stokes. “The initiative has produced spectacular results and has exceeded all expectations.”

The initiative won a “large employer” prize in the latest National Training Awards.