Stonebridge launches recruitment programme for ARs

5 April 2011 | By Tessa Norman

The network is offering to financially support firms looking to recruit new advisers from outside the industry.

While candidates will have to pay for the first module of their QCF Level Three certificate in  Mortgage Advice and Practice, Stonebridge will fund the second and third modules.

Once qualified, Stonebridge will provide full monitoring and checks of the advice and work carried out by the new adviser until he or she is deemed able to advise without supervision of this nature.

Richard Adams, managing director at Stonebridge, says with the number of qualified mortgage advisers falling, firms are having to look outside of the industry in order to expand their businesses.

He says: “This means that our AR members will need to fund and resource new candidates as they work towards their qualifications; in order to ease this burden and to ensure a growing pool of advisers within the Stonebridge Group we have decided to launch this recruitment programme and to help fund new candidates through the qualification process.

“There must be a commitment from the individual themselves and the AR firm but where this is in place, Stonebridge will do all we can to support recruitment.”

Adams adds initiatives like this one are crucial to bringing the next generation into the mortgage industry, as the financial crisis caused the number of advisers to fall so dramatically.

“There is a whole generation of advisers who will be leaving the industry in the next couple of years and we need to make sure we are replacing these with quality, well-qualified people.

“This is why Stonebridge is committed to this recruitment programme and we would welcome correspondence from any AR firms of other networks who are looking for genuine support in this area.”

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