Aviva has started an internship programme for students and recent graduates who are looking to pursue careers as financial advisers.
Six top candidates for the programme, chosen after a competition, received a paid internship of six weeks and a cash award of ??1000.
The pilot scheme was completed in July this year, with 15 runners-up also getting cash prizes and 25 of the next best applicants having their CVs published on Aviva's website.
Aviva UK Life's Stephen Gay said the internships had been devised as a response to gloomy predictions that proposals in the Retail Distribution Review were posing a major threat to independent financial advisers.
He said: "We recognised a need to try to bring more new blood into the industry. We have been heavily involved in the debate about the proposals and it is incumbent upon major organisations to think about solutions rather than simply commenting about industry change."
