Perspective Training Academy Career Ladder

Learning on the job whilst also studying for exams gives you a real advantage—and you are already earning! As a trainee, you will undergo a carefully structured programme to help you develop the key technical and administrative skills required. Very soon, you will become a valued member of the team, contributing to research for clients and preparing documents.

Patrick Laws, Administrator, Perspective (North East) Ltd said:

The training programme has enabled me to get a real understanding for how the industry functions, as well as providing me with the resources and experience necessary to succeed with my studies.

If you join us as an Administrator, you can look forward to playing a pivotal role in a team looking after a group of clients, working closely with an experienced adviser. If you are new to the financial services sector, you are likely to start as a Trainee Administrator and will receive extensive on the job training. Some people chose to follow a career as an Administrator, and gain considerable experience across many areas of financial services.

You will need to be good at managing and prioritising workloads and be exceptionally well organised. You will have a considerable amount of client contact by phone and email, handling important documents with close attention to detail.

It is likely that you will spend 12-18 months in this role before deciding if you would like to progress to the next stage or remain as an Administrator.

A Trainee Paraplanner can be an entry point into financial services for a graduate, or you can make the move up from being an Administrator. You will be on a steep learning curve with a lot of information to absorb and new processes to learn. Your IT and analytical skills will be very important as you undertake detailed research for clients under the supervision of experienced advisers and Senior Administrators. You will begin your studies for exams so balancing conflicting priorities will be key to managing your time effectively.

As your experience grows, you will find yourself being given more responsibility.

Paraplanners are key members of the team. For most people, this role is a steppingstone to becoming a fully qualified Financial Adviser. In the early years, you will undertake a demanding set of exams as well as working—be prepared for a busy life!

Your goal will be to gain your CII Diploma in Financial Planning so you can reach the next level in your career. The firm will give you a lot of assistance in your studies including financial support.

As your experience grows, you will find yourself being given more responsibility and have greater involvement in client contact. You can expect to spend 12-18 months in this role before deciding whether you want to progress to the next stage or remain as a Paraplanner.

Jessica Wright, Paraplanner, Perspective (North East) Ltd

I find working alongside studying really helps to give the information I read in the study books a real life perspective and how it works for our clients in practice. I have also received a lot of support and guidance which I feel has been extremely valuable in helping me pass my exams and in my role as a Paraplanner.

This is a major step in your career and is when you start taking real responsibility for advising clients. Whilst you will still have a lot of supervision, support and training, you will now be working more independently and leading on client contact.

This is the time when you start to develop your own set of clients and build up long term relationships with them. It is also when your people skills as well as your technical skills start to become very important.

Over a period of time, as your experience grows and you demonstrate that you can handle a range of situations, you will be given greater responsibility enabling you to progress to Financial Adviser.

You will be responsible for providing clients with financial advice, making recommendations on how best to achieve their financial goals. This is a big responsibility, which can also be very rewarding when you see the impact of your advice on clients’ lives.

You are an ambassador for the firm and must operate to the highest professional standards at all times. You must also be able to establish and sustain long term productive relationships with client and other professionals.

You may aspire to become qualified to the highest levels in the profession—Chartered Financial Planner and Fellow of the Personal Finance Society. Or you may wish to specialise and become qualified as a Society of Trust and Estate Practitioner (STEP) or a Society of Later Life Advisers (SOLLA) member.