by Morwenna Tyler, Careers Consultant in the School of Management
On Monday 4th May, NextGen Planners hosted its third graduate boot camp for aspiring financial planners through a virtual format in collaboration with Swansea University, School of Management. 17 Students and more than 16 businesses were involved in the event.
The boot camp was run via webinar over a half-day and aimed to pair students with employers who are on the lookout for new talent. The session provided students with the opportunity to network with employers from all across the UK from the Financial Services sector and students delivered pre-recorded presentations for employers to consider as well as participating in group activities and discussions.
The students undertook a handful of group tasks and discussions which included an ethical dilemma, providing the attending businesses with the chance to watch and evaluate how the students worked as a team to arrive at a solution.
The boot camp is all about linking up employers with our students and giving them the opportunity to form relationships, that will hopefully lead to future opportunities. It was great to see so many employers from across the sector sharing the same message that, despite the Covid-19 situation, they are all still recruiting and hoping to secure some talent.
“I am so thankful to NextGen Planners and Swansea Uni for setting up the event, it was very insightful and great to find out there are plenty of opportunities out there to become a financial planner. Hopefully, I will hear back from some of the companies in the coming days.” - Ben Gates, a 3rd-year Business student
Adam Owen, NextGen co-founder and President of the Personal Finance Society, is passionate about getting new talent into the sector. Owen is particularly interested in doing his bit to plug the gap caused by a high percentage of advisers who it is estimated will be leaving the profession over the next few years. "Evidence suggests we have a 7,500-person gap in the people we need to recruit into the profession over the next five years," he said.
“I am so grateful for this amazing experience, I have already had an employer get in contact! I really appreciate the Swansea University Careers team putting in the time and effort to arrange this for us.” - Lizzie Lomas, a 3rd-year Business student
The event included companies such as Mazars, who take on over 30 Grads annually, Bartlett Wealth Management, who are looking to double their workforce, The Progeny group, Brunel Capital Partners and a host of others from across the Financial Services sector.
James Beck from Fiscal Engineers was happy to be involved in the event, “having been a graduate not too long ago, I appreciate how hard it is to make the first step into a career, so it’s fantastic to see initiatives like this” he said. “We’re looking forward to reviewing the student's videos, and there are already a few whom we thought could potentially be a good fit”
Want to know more about the work our careers consultants do and future webinars like this? Email us!
Blog written by: Morwenna Tyler, Careers Consultant in the School of Management
Date published: 18/05/2020