The Financial Skills Partnership has launched a new scheme for unemployed graduates to become financial advisers.
The new Graduate Foundation College will start in September to create opportunities for 150 graduates to increase their employability for small and medium-sized advisory firms (SMEs).
SMEs make up 90 per cent of the financial services sector but find it hard to train up new talent, preferring to recruit existing advisers.
The College will deliver a concentrated pre-employment training programme including online learning, face-to-face exam preparation and work experience.

Firms such as Aviva, Just Retirement and Scottish Widows, all sponsors of the Institute of Financial Planning, will help provide the training, ensuring its quality and industry relevance.
Successful candidates will be offered work placements with participating SMEs, and many of them will then be offered permanent jobs.
Liz Field, chief executive of the Financial Skills Partnership, said: "This visionary new idea will give unemployed graduates access to rewarding careers in a sector which many young people have traditionally found hard to enter, and open up the industry to recruitment from a wider and more diverse pool of keen and able candidates.
"The Graduate Foundation College will provide SMEs in the sector a pre-selected pool of high quality candidates who can contribute from day one.
"These can help firms grow their business and compete in a fast-changing marketplace serving an increasingly diverse customer base."