At Berry & Oak we are constantly striving to encourage interest within the financial services profession, especially when it comes to encouraging young people to consider a future career in the financial profession.

Luke Hamilton, an A level student from Tadcaster Grammar School joined us in July for 3 days work experience as part of his year 12 enrichment week. Andrew & Sarah previously met Luke at careers event at his school in 2018.

Luke got in touch with us as he was looking for a valuable work experience that will increase his skills and employability in the future. He wanted gain an understanding of what the profession of a Financial Planner entailed and further his general knowledge about the field of finance whilst gaining experience from shadowing someone who works in the sector.

Luke said if the time that he spent with us “I was fortunate enough to be offered work experience at Berry & Oak whilst studying for my A Levels.

For a small firm to offer such a well-structured and informative placement and having the time to answer my questions and needs was very impressive.

My time at Berry & Oak has not only improved my understanding of the personal finance industry and how an office environment operates but also given me guidance on other areas such as university studies and apprenticeships.

I am very appreciative of my time at Berry & Oak and would like to thank all involved in my work experience week”.

We were extremely impressed with Luke. He fitted in well with the team and I have very positive feedback from them all about him. We were able to give him the opportunity to watch a zoom and a live client meeting, and he made comprehensive notes and asked questions to learn more about any areas that he didn’t understand during the meeting.

Work experience is about giving them a chance to spend time in a profession that they are interested in following as a future career. Is the role what they thought it would be and is it something they still want to pursue before they make their final choice on the next step in their lives. It also gives them the chance to out what they have learnt from texts books in school into practice in the workplace. It’s also a good way to prepare the students for demands and expectations of the working world.

They also need to make a choice between university and a role straight from 6th form. We have both Holly & Lily who have just joined us from University and Anya who joined us last year after her A Levels so Luke was able to spend time with both of them while he was with us to really understand what his options are for after sixth form.

Berry & Oak would like to wish Luke every success for the future.