Banking & Finance
The four-year financial services degree apprenticeship includes an honors degree from the University of Exeter in England, and Strathclyde University or Heriot Watt University for apprentices in Scotland. “Our degree apprentices make a meaningful contribution to the business from day one,” Sharpe says. “The degree apprenticeship gives them exposure to real work and allows them to build a strong foundation of experience, whilst also studying towards a degree.”
But the advantage for degree apprentices is the amount of work experience they have during the programme. “All of our apprentices are doing real jobs,” Heath emphasises. “They are holding positions in the bank that someone else would be doing if they weren’t there and make a positive contribution to the business from the outset.” HSBC originally set up its degree apprenticeship programmes in 2019. “We’ve had an exceptional success rate and outcomes from that first cohort,” enthuses Heath. “Two-thirds of those apprentices achieved a first-class degree at the end of their apprenticeships.”
JPMorganChase has around 5,000 staff working at its extensive site in Bournemouth, including many of the bank’s degree apprentices. “It’s a whole campus, with its own community, coffee shops, restaurants and nature trails,” enthuses Sharpe. “For our apprentices, it’s a great way to work for a global company but be
Our apprentices make a meaningful contribution to
Elsewhere in the finance sector, JPMorganChase was one of the first investment banks in the UK to offer degree apprenticeships. It has been recruiting apprentices for its financial services and technology
the business from day one
able to live outside of a big city.” Competition for places on JPMorganChase’s degree apprenticeship programmes is considerable, but for those who are successful, it provides the foundation for a career in financial services. “The apprenticeship gives school-leavers such a good grounding in the organisation”, explains Sharpe. “It helps them build up their confidence, their knowledge of the business, and develop their networks. We find almost all our apprentices choose to stay with the bank at the end of their apprenticeship.”
programmes for the past 12 years. The bank now takes on around 130 degree apprentices annually, in Bournemouth, Edinburgh and London. “We’ve always been a major recruiter of university graduates,” explains Helena Sharpe, Head of EMEA Early Careers and Executive Director at JPMorganChase. “But by offering degree apprenticeships, we can recruit school-leavers who start work in the bank doing roles that don’t necessarily need a degree straightaway, whilst they develop their skills and complete their university studies,” she continues.
38 Degree Apprenticeships
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