Yr10 Work Experience Week:
Monday - On the first day of my 5-day work experience week I went through the company introduction, this included a site tour and housekeeping which was the foundation to helping me get through the week as smoothy as possible. Next was the health and safety presentation with Ruth and included a health and safety presentation and a cyber-Security presentation. These two inductions helped me feel safe on the site and taught me how to reduce dangers and prevent security breaches.
Next up on Monday was a power point on the role of client services with Fiona. This helped me understand what everyone does in the company and how everyone and everything works together to ensure a hardworking successful business. After this I sat with Ali Owen and we went through the role of relationship managers and this included how the relationship managers reach out to clients, how networking works and included a lovely PowerPoint!
Later I went through the reception duties with Laura, she taught me how to go through the morning post process which included opening the post, scanning the accounts onto the Backoffice systems and then delivering it to the employees. She also taught me how to meet the clients whilst also preparing the meeting rooms for them and the end of day post process.
Tuesday – Tuesday morning started of with some online learning where I researched how the company protects vulnerable clients and what ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) investing is. This helped me understand and learn some of the different types of investments and how choosing specific investments can help the environment and communities.
Also, on Tuesday morning I covered the FMB strategy with Liz, this shows me the companies’ values and how this ensures a friendly but professional and profitable business. I learnt about the companies’ partners and the responsibilities of the company.
During what would be lunchtime me and Ruth participated in the NatWest business lunch at the Borough in Lancaster, this was enjoyable as I was able to see how networking works and how businesses can share contacts to find new clients or find companies that can better the business.
Later on in the day Lora introduced me to how the Backoffice system works and how to input data, this introduced me to what some of the employees do in there day to day lives and how all the data is stored in one organised system.
Wednesday – On Wednesday I learnt about Leads processing and marketing and also updated some photos on Linkedin from the business lunch on Tuesday. This workshop included Ruth and Rebeccas role in the company and the events the company holds.
After the workshop Ruth and I met up with Laura Priestley from Temple Heelis solicitors and their work experience student. At this meeting we discussed how Financial Management Bureau and Temple Heelis help each other and what each of the work experience students have been up to during the first two days. I got to see what other companies do in a similar type of profession and how they adapt for different situations to do with that job.
On Wednesday afternoon I continued to do some factfind inputting and started to use real information with Lora supervising and this helped me experience what the work actually feels like, following this was a communication watch webinar which included how to present and speak online professionally.
Thursday – On Thursday I did a full day of factfind inputting which made me feel like an actual employee and taught me skills like how to manage the back office system and the easiest ways to find and input client information. This full day of working was broken up by a Microsoft Word workshop where most employees joined a Microsoft Teams meeting and shared different tips and tricks people have learnt on Microsoft Word and enhanced my own ability at using the app.
At the end of the day, I observed an integration committee meeting that included important members across the Purposeful Group, in this meeting upcoming projects were discussed with the different companies that make up the group of which FMB are a part.
Friday – Friday started off with an IN-group meeting with Graham Lappin a Financial Planner, which is a meeting between many professionals of different companies where upcoming projects are discussed and an overview of how their business is getting on is shared with the rest of the group.
After the meeting I discussed with Roger who is a Financial Planner the concept of cash flow modelling. This was very interesting as it showed me what sort of methods the advisors use to connect and show their clients how FMB are helping them with their money.
During the midday of Friday Ali Owen showed me how they get quotes for transferring pensions from one site to another and taught me how they write it all up.
Friday finished of with another Microsoft workshop but this time on Excel which was interesting as we have not been taught how to use it at school and a lot of work is now on computers so I am sure it will be helpful for later life.
Overview – My week of work experience at FMB has been a real pleasure as I have learnt many important skills and have met many wonderful people. I am sure I will remember this week as a lovely week for many years to come and I would love to return. Many thanks to all of FMB for making a fantastic week full of important activities.
Benji – Work experience student