St. James’s Place, the UK’s largest wealth management company, is offering virtual work experience to 1,000 young people, giving a week-long taster for those interested in a career in financial services.
SJP’s Virtual Work Experience Week, Financial Services Explained, takes place over five days, from Monday 11 to Friday 15 July inclusive. It will offer those aged 17-21 insights into the various roles that exist within financial services and give them a chance to talk to real practitioners from more than a dozen different disciplines.
There are dedicated training sessions covering a whole host of topics from ‘Winning your dream job – personal branding, CV writing and winning in an interview’, through to ‘Generating a personal development plan’. Virtual classroom teaching sessions cover such topics as ‘Harnessing social media’ and ‘Presenting to win’.
In addition, the programme includes the opportunity to work with others on a dedicated project, where the winning team will take home £500. At the end they will be presented with a certificate to mark their attendance and participation.
Places will be allocated on a first come first served basis and there is a dedicated registration website with an application form for those interested.
The virtual work experience programme was first developed during the pandemic in response to the lack of in-person opportunities and has been run on three previous occasions, in October 2020, April 2021 and October 2021. More than 5,000 young people have already utilised the programme to build an awareness of what a career in financial services could look like, with the intention that it provides a feeder programme to attract candidates for a career in financial services more generally and SJP in particular.
Andy Payne, Head of the SJP Academy, said: “At a time when work experience opportunities have been hard to come by, this is a great chance for those from all backgrounds, educational qualifications, geographical areas and more to take part in an interactive work experience programme. This is a comprehensive taster of what working in financial services looks like. Having a virtual work experience programme that is accessible and flexible means that we are removing barriers to participation and opening up the opportunity to all.”
This programme is for students aged 17 (Year 12 & 13) to 20 (who have completed their first year at university), looking for a career in Financial Services. Places are limited and will be granted on a ‘first come, first served' basis. Registration is via the SJP Early Careers website.