Employer Newsletter: June 2025

Welcome to the third edition of our employer newsletter!

Now with a fresh new look and an improved layout designed to make your reading experience more seamless and engaging. This newsletter continues to be your one-stop shop for the latest industry and provider updates, helping you stay informed and ahead of the curve.

In this edition, we’re diving into the recent government spending review and exploring key topics to support you through the busy weeks ahead as you prepare for your 2025 Early Careers and Graduate cohorts. Learn more about how we’re supporting those aged 16–18., including a bespoke ‘NextGen’ curriculum. We are providing those at the earliest stages in their career with the foundations they need to become our future leaders.

With many pending and upcoming changes to existing apprenticeship programmes, it’s more important than ever to stay connected. This newsletter will showcase how your involvement is key in helping us shape solutions that truly meet the needs of your business.

We’re also delighted to introduce two fantastic new members to our team: Abbie Thompson and Gordon Harvey. Both bring a wealth of experience in financial services and insurance, with strong backgrounds in apprenticeship coaching. Their expertise makes them perfectly placed to support your learning and development strategies and provide ongoing guidance. Some of you may have the opportunity to meet or speak with them soon, we’re confident you’ll find their insights invaluable. Please join us in giving them a warm welcome!

You’ll also find a section in this edition where you can leave feedback, we’d love to hear your thoughts on how we can continue to evolve the newsletter and tailor the content to support you.

We’re excited about what’s ahead and look forward to continuing to work closely with you to deliver meaningful outcomes for both your business and future talent.

Product Lifecycles

Improving resource consistency with our coaches

As part of our ongoing commitment to delivering products that meet your needs and address industry skills gaps, we are embarking on a series of client exploration conversations. Your involvement in these discussions is crucial, and we want to explain how these conversations will benefit you and help shape our product lifecycle.

Why these conversations are key:

1. Product lifecycle: Your feedback helps us review and refine our products to ensure they are fit for purpose and aligned with current industry standards.
2. Skills gaps: By understanding your experiences and needs, we can better address the skills gaps in your organisation & the industry, ensuring our products remain relevant and effective.
3. Trailblazers: We actively participate in various apprenticeship trailblazer groups alongside other training providers, End point Assessment Organisations (EPAOs), and industry employers. We want to proactively share any proposed changes with you and encourage you to join these groups where possible. Our Client Success team can provide guidance on how to get involved.

We’d greatly value insights on your organisation’s experience with apprenticeships and other training or talent development programmes. We’re particularly interested in what has worked well and where there may have been challenges or areas for improvement. We’d also appreciate your thoughts on Knowledge, Skills, and Behaviours (KSB), any recent changes to relevant standards, and how these developments will shape and support your approach to talent development.

Please note any discussions will be purely for research purposes to help us understand what you want and need from our products. Your insights will help shape the design and development of our future offerings.

Together, we can develop products that not only support the development of new talent but also bridge any existing skills gaps in your organisation, while driving continuous improvement of professional education within the industry.

Our Client Success team will reach out soon with details on how you can share your insights.

Product Pathways

A new, centralised hub designed to support our coaches and enhance the apprenticeship experience.

Launched recently by our Product team, Product Pathways collates apprenticeship content, resources, documentation, and guidance into one easy-to-access location. This streamlined approach empowers coaches to quickly find and share the right materials with apprentices, saving time and ensuring clarity.

By standardising delivery across programmes, Product Pathways create a more consistent and high-quality learning experience for every apprentice. It’s a step forward in making our support more efficient, aligned, and impactful.

Preparing to onboard your incoming Early in Career cohorts

As we continue to speed through 2025, we are now fast approaching our busiest time of year. With many graduates and early careers apprentices enrolling onto their programmes this autumn, we remain committed to ensuring they have a seamless start. To make this possible, we need your support in planning ahead and providing us with key information as early as possible.

What we need from you:

• Confirmed start numbers for your learners
• Details of any exemptions, including:
  • Maths and English GCSEs
  • University degrees
  • Any other relevant qualifications or prior learning (e.g. completed CII modules)
• Timely completion of onboarding forms
• Professional body membership orders for your learners (where applicable)

📅 Next steps

Over the next month, we will be working with you to obtain the above information, and we strongly encourage you to schedule time with your dedicated Client Success contact to map out clear timelines for submitting this detail. The earlier we receive the detail around your early careers and graduate starts, the better we can coordinate onboarding activities and confirm programme start dates.

Your collaboration is key to a successful launch, and we’re here to support you every step of the way.

Next Gen Hub

We are committed to providing specialised support for our apprentices aged 16-18. That’s why we provide the Next Generation Hub—a curriculum to help young people working in financial services to build important skills to benefit them in both their professional and personal lives. The curriculum sets them up for success now and in the future, while providing reassurance to employers and parents about the scope of learning.

This curriculum includes:

• Bespoke pastoral support for our apprentices and learners who are under the age of 18—as required from a Davies safeguarding and Ofsted perspective.
• Fantastic resources that provide information, advice and guidance on topics that are relevant to young people, including:
  • • • Workplace professionalism and etiquette
      • Health and wellbeing
      • Financial foundations
      • Know how
      • Staying safe
      • Be yourself
• Within each of the topic categories, we have informative videos, backed by further learning and support aligned to each topic. For example, within health and wellbeing we cover what healthy relationships look like, and this links to another sexual health and wellbeing resource which breaks the topic down further. There are also helplines and contacts included for further support.
• Our dedicated tutors, who provide the overarching pastoral support for our young apprentices will check in with each individual on a monthly basis. They provide individualised support, contextualising apprentices’ learning & signposting them to further reading/content to support their development.
• Any learners that fit into the Next Generation Hub age bracket will automatically find these important resources included within their programme.

Programme Spotlight

In a digital-first financial world, clients expect seamless, accurate, and professional service at every touchpoint. The Financial Services Administrator Level 3 Apprenticeship and Senior Financial Services Customer Adviser Level 3 Apprenticeship develop individuals who play a vital role in delivering exceptional client experiences. They do this by ensuring smooth operations through clear communication, tailored advice, and outstanding client support.

If you would like to know more about our current Financial Services Administrator Level 3 and Senior Financial Services Customer Adviser Level 3 programmes and the potential upcoming changes, please refer to our latest programme webinar: