We’re celebrating our apprentices this National Apprenticeship Week

Our Banking and Markets Apprenticeships offer on-the-job learning while gaining technical and professional skills training, all in the setting of real-world business exposure with access to senior leaders and experts to help you on your journey.

Our first Financial Markets apprentices are now fully-fledged employees, and we caught up with some of them to get insights in to how the apprenticeship, and now their full-time jobs, are going.

Noah had a baptism of fire as a new analyst in our G20 spot foreign exchange team. When we spoke to him, tariffs were sparking global reaction, and he has been at the heart of a turbulent market that needed to react instantly to changing news.

As the first bank to offer a UK-based financial markets apprenticeship programme with front office exposure, and the opportunity for our apprentices to be offered a permanent front office role, the Bank is proud to be forward-looking whilst recognising the successes of the past.

We launched the scheme in 2021 both to encourage diversity within the business to complement our graduate programme, and to rediscover the raw trading talent that exists when engaging with school-leavers who haven’t followed the traditional academic route through university. Alison Higgins, Head of Markets, UK & Europe, and Head of Prime Services talked to us about how, in the past, talented traders were recruited into junior roles and rose through the ranks on their own merit and drive, something we are now recapturing with our Apprenticeship programme.

 “We were aware that we were limiting the talent pool, cutting out those people who would have traditionally come in via a broker or the trading floor. They may have been a barrow boy or started in a broking shop and moved into trading. And one of the things that’s incredibly important to the bank is social mobility.”

A successful milestone

In 2025, 11 of our initial apprentices became fully-fledged employees. Noah earned a distinction in his level 6 apprenticeship that finished at the end of 2024, equivalent to a degree, and the other apprentices to have completed the programme have also all achieved distinctions in their apprenticeships, an outstanding achievement and something we’re very proud of at Standard Chartered.

Initially in 2021, we engaged with youngsters in disadvantaged communities through our early careers website, at recruitment fairs and outreach through schools, with our colleagues sharing stories of what it’s like to work in financial markets. We had over 1,700 applicants, shortlisted down to 100, and then again down to 25, from whom the final candidates were selected. Another great achievement for those who became the Bank’s first Markets apprentices.

Our apprentices start with an induction week to help them transition from education into a corporate environment, which progresses to a foundation that brings together lessons about everything from how a bank operates, through to the lifecycle of a trade. After that, our apprentices spend their time rotating across the various trading desks, with time built into study for their apprenticeship qualification in partnership with the University of Exeter, who are our training provider.

Our apprentices are supported by both the University, through access to tutors and mentors, and also by us through our Early Careers team, with its dedicated apprenticeship programme colleagues, and by the business itself, at all levels. Something our apprentices said really inspired them, is having the opportunity to hear from global heads in the business speaking passionately about the programme and the opportunities it brings.

Among our former apprentices, and now qualified employees from the apprenticeship scheme is Charlotte, 21, a karate black belt who is now an analyst in our structured credit sales team. Charlotte spoke to us about the two transformational years since she joined straight from school.

Charlotte is so enthusiastic about her experience that she has joined the council of the Association of Apprentices. She has been working hard to get the word out about apprenticeships and encourage other school leavers to take this alternative route into a rewarding career.

Opening the door for more apprentices

The youngest of 2025’s newly employed apprentices is Amie, 20, who accepted a role as an analyst in our global credit insurance team. Amie was eager to get into a front office role and was fast-tracked, and she is forging ahead to gain more responsibility and put her experience in to practice.

Our commitment to investing in the next generation of bankers is felt strongly by our senior leaders in the business, who believe that diversity of talent creates a dynamic workforce, which reflects the clients and communities where we operate, as Alison told us: “We see huge value in introducing talent into Standard Chartered where we create a community of colleagues who have different influences, from their wider family’s job paths, or through their own education choices.

“You introduce diversity of thought into the bank from someone who has no grounding in finance, and that provokes a brilliant conversation. It’s important for us to tap into this purity of thought and pool of cultures, which results in positive challenges to the way we’ve been working. And for the apprentices, too, this is just such a great opportunity which we’re so pleased to see them fully embracing.”

If you’re interested in finding out more about our Apprenticeship scheme, visit our Early Careers website for all the information: Apprenticeships in banking and finance | Standard Chartered