Secure Trust Bank is an award winning bank and lender that employs over 800 staff and has over 1 million customers across the UK. Its mission is to build the best bank in Britain.
The responses below have been provided by Richard Cox, Head of Motor Operations and Jo Hickey, a customer services manager who has been working with the apprentices in her team.
Why did Secure Trust Bank start employing apprentices?
Supporting the Motor Finance Specialist apprenticeship is aligned to our goal of creating career pathways within our motor business. We are aiming to develop staff to become multi-skilled and knowledgable and starting this journey as an apprentice is an excellent foundation to do this. The scheme has been an excellent opportunity to recruit talent into our motor team.
What benefits has the apprenticeship brought to your business?
Our apprentices are working within our operational teams alongside their study. This is great because they are helping us to provide service excellence to our customers, and because they are learning about different parts of the motor business as part of the apprenticeship standard, this helps inspire other staff to broaden their knowledge as part of their personal development.
How does your apprenticeship programme work and what training is provided?
Our apprentices have been placed within our operatational teams to initially experience customer services, underwriting and payout. This really enables them to understand the customer journey and provides the flexibilty to reach out to other parts of the business as part of the learning. They are allocated one day per week towards study and in addition have spent time with our Development Specialists and key personnel to learn more about the business, all of which is relevant to their apprenticeship. As part of their induction, they have also completed the SAF Expert test.
Are apprenticeships part of wider recruitment/careers/training activity?
We are working to upskill our staff, giving them an indepth understanding of our motor finance business. This includes cross skilling to provide variety, flexibility and career development. The apprenticeship scheme complements this as the apprentices are also learning about motor finance and training in various departments. The apprentices recruited to our motor finance business are part of a Group-wide intake which has created roles in a number of business areas and teams. We are also looking to recruit more apprentices to our businesses this year.
Are you looking to employ more motor finance specialist apprentices in future?
We currently have three motor finance apprentices working within the business and expect to support the initiative with further recruits in the future.
You can read more about Secure Trust Bank's three apprentices by clicking on their names below: