Applied learning is being put to the test as a UK university and a London trading firm come together to design the optimal finance degree.

Proprietary trading firm OSTC is one of many firms jostling for financial services talent straight from university. Even better if a firm can develop and apply those skills before they reach the wider marketplace. In one such industry-led approach to train the next crop of derivatives traders, the London-based firm has joined forces with Sheffield Hallam Business School to design a course that is a first of its kind in the UK, possibly globally, the partnership said.

The undergraduate BSc (Hons) in Financial Trading and Investment Management, which starts in earnest in September, provides students with a year-one and year-three of theory in Sheffield learning the fundamentals of finance and accounting through to trading, portfolio management and regulation. In the sandwich year, students train with OSTC staff in London to gain first-hand experience of the derivatives market, and develop work-ready skills to go into fund, investment and wealth management, the group said. In this respect, Sheffield Hallam, which caters for around 30,000 students, has touted itself as a world-leading university in applied learning.

While internships and graduate placements are standard practice in financial services, with many investment banks and institutions running their own schemes, Sheffield wants to create "a degree with vocational qualifications embedded,” said Russell Roberts, global head of professional qualifications at OSTC, which is supporting the new course with 30 per cent discount on training.

To this end, OSTC staff together with specialists from higher education and professional bodies have reverse engineered the degree based on specific job profiles and satisfying employers needs. The result is that industry gets “work-ready, vocationally competent students from day one" said Russell, while students go into roles already knowing they have the right skill sets and behavioural business exposure. Students also work towards two professional qualifications - a Level 5 Advanced Diploma in Financial Trading and the CFA Investment Management Certificate (IMC), the university said.

The industry has identified certain skills-gaps in investment banking, investment management, retail banking, commercial banking, and operations, where shortages are not just in knowledge, but in skills application and behaviours, Russell told WealthBriefing, and Sheffield has been “pioneering in its approach" to bridge this gap. “Other universities have industry links, but these do not deliver qualifications or contribute to the degree credits of the programme,” he said.

Damion Taylor, the school's deputy head of finance, accounting and business systems believes the course offers "unrivalled, practical experience," and is probably the only one globally where students can gain a degree that includes financial trading experience. The module in London "will teach them how to use tier-one trading platforms, the same as those used by traders."

The university said demand for the programme, which launched as a 10-student pilot last year, has been such that it is looking to expand it globally.