The St. James's Place Academy recently held three graduation ceremonies for its newly-qualified graduates, watching 155 qualified financial planning advisers and 74 paraplanners graduate from the advice giant's school.
The graduation ceremonies were held across three cities, Edinburgh, Manchester and London, to celebrate the graduates of the past two years, many of whom completed their training courses remotely as a result of the pandemic.
These graduates can choose to run their own business under the umbrella of St. James's Place (SJP) or to work within existing SJP firms. To date, 801 people have graduated from the academy.
Andy Payne, head of academy at St. James's Place, said: "Our graduation days have been an incredible celebration of the talented and dedicated new partners and advisers that have committed themselves to improving the quality of advice. Seeing the talent we've had come through our programme gives me a lot of excitement and hope for the future. I look forward to welcoming the next wave of Academy members in 2022."
The academy, created in 2007, trains candidates in financial advice, providing support for future partners of SJP to start and build their own high quality wealth management practice. It recently launched a new approach to training, which includes the use of virtual reality technology to allow trainees to roll-play client meetings, practicing elements such as fact-finding and rapport building with a greater degree of realism.
