Wanted: 20 years’ experience – Must be under 25! – Davidson

We all agree we need fresh ideas, different perspectives and a new generation of advisers.

But there’s one small problem – sometimes, it seems like we only seem interested in young talent once somebody else has taken the risk of developing it.

Look through the vacancies in financial services and you will regularly see the same requirements: previous experience, relevant qualifications, an existing client bank or a proven record of writing business.

All perfectly understandable in challenging times, perhaps. Firms need people who can contribute, customers clearly need competent advice and this is a regulated industry where mistakes can be costly.

Yet if firms want time-served experts, who is going to provide that valuable first experience?

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The experience problem

Recent government research among young people not in education, employment or training (NEETs) found that 84% wanted to move into work, education or training. Only 13% believed the education system prepared young people properly for employment.

The research also identified that employers ask for previous experience, but young people cannot acquire that experience until an employer gives them an opportunity.

It is easy to describe a generation as lacking confidence, resilience or workplace skills, but much harder to acknowledge that confidence often comes from being trusted, resilience grows through experience and workplace skills are generally learned in a place of work.

The government’s new Jobs Guarantee aims to create more than 90,000 fully funded jobs by 2029 for 18-24-year-olds who have spent 18 months claiming Universal Credit and looking for work. The scheme should be welcomed, but it makes me feel uneasy that a young person must spend 18 months searching before a guaranteed opportunity becomes available.

How much confidence can disappear in that time? How much potential might never be discovered?

Firms should also create opportunities

It’s not fair to solely blame the government. Employers, including mortgage firms, have a role to play. The launch of the Working in Mortgages Rising Talent Community is an encouraging step. Created by the Association of Mortgage Intermediaries (AMI) and Intermediary Mortgage Lenders Association (IMLA), it aims to give newer professionals access to mentors, connections and the confidence to become more visible within the industry. Good contacts can open otherwise closed doors.

Yet, we must be careful not to confuse supporting young talent with employing it. Networking is valuable; so is mentoring and so are webinars. Ultimately, though, young people also need somebody to put a desk, a salary and a genuine opportunity behind the encouraging words.

Of course, employing somebody without experience requires investment. They need supervision, patience, feedback and time with people who know the job. They will ask questions and occasionally get things wrong. But experienced recruits do too; sometimes, they simply arrive with their bad habits already fully developed.

Young talent does not require us to lower our standards, but it does require us to give people a structured route towards meeting them.

There is a business case as well as a social one. People developed internally understand the firm’s culture and expectations, they bring energy, adaptability and a different perspective on how future customers will communicate and consume advice.

We have supported many young people into the industry over the years here at UK Moneyman and our investment is without fail repaid with both gratitude and loyalty. Young people always remember who gave them their first chance.

Not every firm can create an academy or recruit several apprentices, but most can consider doing something, whether that be offering meaningful work experience, funding CeMAP, recruiting into an administrative role with a visible career path or asking an experienced adviser to mentor somebody with potential.

We often say that good people are difficult to find, but perhaps that is because we are searching only for the finished article. The Rising Talent Community can create connections, apprenticeships can provide structure and government schemes can reduce the financial risk – yet none of them can replace an employer being prepared to say: “We see something in you.”

Every experienced person in this industry was once inexperienced. Every confident adviser once had questions. Every senior leader once needed somebody to open the first door, so if the mortgage industry genuinely wants more rising talent, it must do more than applaud people on the way up.

It must give them somewhere to start.