University of Exeter Business School and J.P. Morgan to launch apprenticeship scheme for aspiring investment bankers

The four-year Level 6 Financial Services Apprenticeship programme enables individuals to “earn as they learn”, completing a degree BSc (Hons) in Applied Finance from the University of Exeter Business School and gaining two professional qualifications from the Chartered Institute of Securities and Investments (CISI). School leavers applying for J.P. Morgan apprenticeships will be required to complete the 18-month Level 4 programme at the bank before joining one of the Level 6 tracks.

The apprenticeship is a new strand to the Financial Services Apprenticeships programme, which launched in 2019 and was the first time a Russell Group university had provided apprentice training at degree level in financial services for a global financial services firm.

The partnership between J.P. Morgan and the University of Exeter currently takes around 70 apprentices per year across its existing Financial Services and Technology degree apprenticeship programmes.

As a result of the success of these programmes, the firm is increasing its investment in apprenticeships from 2021 to bring the annual total of school leaver apprentice places at the firm to in excess of 120.

The scheme is one of the first apprenticeships of its type in the UK, with Exeter running a similar scheme with UBS.

“We have enormous belief in the power of apprenticeships,” said Vis Raghavan, EMEA CEO at J.P. Morgan. “The success of our business depends on diversity of thought. Opening up different pathways into J.P. Morgan is a fundamental part of that, and we have no doubt that the expansion of our apprenticeship programme into front office investment banking groups will mean we can attract even stronger candidates.”

Professor Tim Quine, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Education) at the University of Exeter, added: “The University of Exeter is committed to developing our apprenticeship portfolio in order to promote increased student choice and access to higher education, further supporting our long-standing commitment to widening participation and innovation in education.

“Working closely with partners such as J.P. Morgan is central to our approach, which extends opportunities for a broad group of students and helps them access areas of employment they may not have previously considered.” 

The apprentices’ daily tasks and training will include building financial models to support transactions, preparing marketing materials, managing data rooms and transaction documents and responding to queries from clients and potential clients. This mirrors the experience of interns and graduate analysts.

The first batch of individuals to take the new front office investment banking apprenticeship route will begin in January 2021, with these candidates taken from the existing crop of Financial Services apprentices and alumni currently working in the Operations and Corporate departments at the firm.

“This is a bespoke programme and reflects what we’re doing on the markets side of J.P. Morgan, where we have run a front office trading apprenticeship programme since 2019,” added Phill Paige, Executive Director and UK Early Years Careers Lead. “We are thrilled to be able to offer a broad group of school leavers the chance to not only gain a qualification from a Russell Group university while simultaneously working for a leading firm, but actually to become a future dealmaker working at the very heart of business.”

Any employers interested in Degree Apprenticeships at Exeter can make contact at BusinessDAs@exeter.ac.uk

Correction: a previous version of this article described the partnership between J.P. Morgan and Exeter as the UK's first investment banking apprenticeship. It has been updated to reflect the fact that a similar programme is being run with UBS.