Training key to future success of industry

The Coaching Platform, a company specialising in training brokers and lenders, has claimed that there was an absence of training for new entrants. The company claimed that standards needed to be improved as brokers had mainly been trained by product providers on their ranges.

Director of the Coaching Platform, Mark Ehlinger, said: “MP Ed Balls is very keen to promote education in this sector if a long-term future in the financial sector is to be secured, and the government is keen to see a graduate calibre into the financial sector. Naturally it is quite an ageing industry and we are very keen to do training and it is highly likely that the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families will promote the aims of looking for some sort of benchmark.

“There is no question that education in financial services has an important part to play in this aspect as having any kind of standard will become increasingly important.”

The Coaching Platform has recently been awarded the ‘Excellence in training’ certificate, one of only a few companies to have been officially awarded for its educational activities, and it currently offers compliance and training with open courses and firm visits. Ehlinger said: “To be able to tell people that you are accredited is very important for us.”

Paul Chafer, sales and marketing director at Stroud & Swindon, said: “I agree with this, as there is an ever decreasing lack of people moving into financial services and a lack of interest makes it less exciting than it used to be.”

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