St. James’s Place (SJP) has expanded its Virtual Reality (VR) adviser training with a course from the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII).
SJP is piloting two VR empathy and vulnerability face-to-face sessions, run by SJP through the CII.
These are aimed at building vulnerable client support and soft skills for advisers in line with the Consumer Duty.
Both current CII and non-CII members who are in financial adviser or client-facing financial services roles will be offered the chance to enrol.
Two pilot half-day sessions, on May 29 and June 20 2024, are available on a first-come, first-served basis via the CII website. In total, there are 15 places available for each session using Oculus Quest 2 VR headsets supplied by SJP.
The sessions will be led by SJP and Technical Connection director Edward Grant and has been created by SJP’s Learning & Development training experts.
In September 2021, SJP became the first financial services provider to roll out VR technology for training and role-playing through the SJP Financial Adviser Academy and across its business.
Since 2021, SJP has collaborated with immersive technology companies 55E5 and MAKE REAL to produce training programmes, which also includes a programme on how to recognise and support clients who may be dealing with cognitive decline.
Grant said: “Our partnership with the CII signifies our commitment to leading and supporting the development of new initiatives to build consumer confidence and trust in financial advice. This is particularly true where financial advisers are increasingly dealing with clients in vulnerable circumstances, and lives are increasingly online with digital legacy to manage.
“By integrating empathy training into our vulnerable client programme, we are ensuring that advisers across the profession are equipped to handle diverse client needs with care and sensitivity.”
CII chief customer officer Gill White added: “Developing new ways to understand and meet the needs of all consumers, especially those that are vulnerable, is a true sign of professionalism and helps to build client trust.
“The CII is proud to be working with SJP to deliver these innovative sessions, which will help attendees stand out in their profession for their ability to support the widest range of clients, including those encountering cognitive decline.”
Personal Finance Society (PFS) interim CEO Don McIntyre said: “The PFS is committed to working across the sector to develop approaches that will help our members to meet the FCA’s requirements. These tutorials supplement the high-quality resources that we have already developed as part of our Consumer Duty toolkit.”
Recent research from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) found that “using virtual reality to train our people was more effective than classroom and e-learning settings at teaching soft skills concepts”, with the ‘v-learners’ feeling 3.75 times more emotionally connected to the content than classroom learners, and 2.3 times more connected than e-learners.
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