CN Financial Planning colleague interviewed for choosing traineeship route into the sector

CN Financial Planning’s Amelia Herbert CeMAP, a CeMAP Diploma and DipFA holder, has been featured in an article by Walbrook Institute London LIBF discussing alternative routes into a career in the sector.

Rather than taking the traditional university route into financial planning, 21-year-old Amelia is among the growing numbers choosing traineeships that combine learning with workplace experience. Her preference for independent learning has seen her complete CeMAP, CeMAP Diploma and DipFA qualifications, and is now studying for her Advanced DipFA exam while working at Cheadle Royal-based CN Financial Planning.

Amelia has been selected specifically for the media coverage due to being one of the youngest people in the UK to achieve on her study path, sharing her story in an interview with Walbrook Institute London:

Can you tell us a bit about yourself and your current role?

“My name’s Amelia. I am 21 years old and I’m currently training to be a financial adviser. My current role comprises of paraplanning and a little bit of administration at the moment.”

What were you doing before you started your traineeship?

“Before starting my traineeship, I was at college. I studied business, financial studies and history. And then since enjoying financial studies so much, I did want to pursue a career in financial advice. I didn’t want to go to uni because I didn’t feel like this was the career path for me. So I wanted to get a trainee job where I could learn by taking exams on the job, but also earn money by doing the job as well.”

Why did you feel that university wasn’t for you?

“I felt like university wasn’t for me as, although I did enjoy school and college, I feel that structured learning isn’t as much for me. I prefer more independent learning where I can learn in my own time and when I wanted to and how I wanted to. So I preferred more of a trainee job where I did have more of that freedom.”…

… ‘I think having multiple LIBF qualifications definitely puts me in a strong position as a young woman in the financial industry. I think at such a young age, achieving all these as well hopefully inspires other people to want to take these exams.’

What attracted you to the financial industry?

“So I have family that are also in the financial industry. So they definitely encouraged me to take financial studies. But I also thought as I wanted to take business, I thought the financial studies subject would accompany this quite well. And that’s why I wanted to take financial studies in college.”

Before your traineeship started did you foresee any challenges?

“I think when I started the job as a trainee, I didn’t have all the knowledge of what the job was going be like, because I felt like it’s such a big job, there’s so many different aspects to it, so I think that was probably more of my uncertainty of the job. But since starting, you get a full grasp of what the job is about.”

What was a typical day like during those first few weeks of the traineeship?

“The first few weeks of my traineeship comprised of sitting with other colleagues and the other advisers and learning what their job role was. And then after learning what their job role, was them teaching me what my job role was, which at the start it’s basically learning from the bottom up. So I did a lot of the administration work. You did the printing, scanning, so you definitely learn from the top to bottom of what the job is.”

Read or watch the full interview on the Walbrook Institute London website here.