Customer Service Apprenticeship - Leeds (Level 3)

Summary

Start your Financial Services career with a customer-facing apprenticeship.

Wage

£25,000 a year

• Pay progression: two fixed increments of £750 each in year one (one after six months’ probation, another at the end of year one following a competency assessment)

Training course

Customer service specialist (level 3)

Hours

Ability to commit to a minimum of 60% office-time per week (following completion of initial training). Shifts to be confirmed.

35 hours a week

Start date

Monday 14 September 2026

Duration

1 year 6 months

Positions available

13

Work

Most of your apprenticeship is spent working. You’ll learn on the job by getting hands-on experience.

What you'll do at work

This is a telephony-based role where you’ll:

• Support customers over the phone in a friendly, professional way
• Resolve queries and process a wide range of transactions accurately
• Use multiple systems while keeping quality and customer experience high
• Help customers understand HSBC products and digital banking options
• Build your skills through structured learning and feedback

Where you'll work

40 Wakefield Road, Leeds
LS98 1FD

Training

Apprenticeships include time away from working for specialist training. You’ll study to gain professional knowledge and skills.

Training provider

KAPLAN FINANCIAL LIMITED

Training course

Customer service specialist (level 3)

What you'll learn

• Business focused service delivery: Demonstrate a continuous improvement and future focussed approach to customer service delivery including decision making and providing recommendations or advice
• Business focused service delivery: Resolve complex issues by being able to choose from and successfully apply a wide range of approaches
• Business focused service delivery: Find solutions that meet your organisations needs as well as the customer requirements
• Providing a positive customer experience: Through advanced questioning, listening and summarising negotiate mutually beneficial outcomes
• Providing a positive customer experience: Manage challenging and complicated situations within your level of authority and make recommendations to enable and deliver change to service or strategy
• Providing a positive customer experience: Use clear explanations, provide options and solutions to influence and help customers make choices and agree next steps
• Providing a positive customer experience: Explore and interpret the customer experience to inform and influence achieving a positive result for customer satisfaction
• Providing a positive customer experience: Demonstrate a cost conscious mind-set when meeting customer and the business needs
• Providing a positive customer experience: Identifying where highs and lows of the customer journey produce a range of emotions in the customer
• Providing a positive customer experience: Use written and verbal communication to simplify and provide complex information in a way that supports positive customer outcome in the relevant format
• Working with customers/customer insights: Proactively gather customer feedback, through a variety of methods. Critically analyse, and evaluate the meaning, implication and facts and act upon it
• Working with customers/customer insights: Analyse your customer types, to identify or anticipate their potential needs and expectations when providing your service
• Customer Service performance: Maintain a positive relationship even when you are unable to deliver the customer’s expected outcome
• Customer Service performance: When managing referrals or escalations take into account historical interactions and challenges to determine next steps
• Service Improvement: Analyse the end to end service experience, seeking input from others where required, supporting development of solutions
• Service Improvement: Make recommendations based on your findings to enable improvement
• Service Improvement: Make recommendations and implement where possible, changes in line with new and relevant legislation, regulations and industry best practice

Training schedule

Alongside your role, you’ll complete the Level 3 Senior Financial Services Customer Advisor Apprenticeship.

What to expect:

• Dedicated off-phone study time each week
• A portfolio of learning and assignments to complete
• Observations and feedback from a Talent Coach
• A programme typically completed over 12–18 months (role commitment required for 18 months)
• We’ll set you up properly before you’re fully live with our customers.
• Training programme: up to 15 weeks in an academy setting, learning how best to support our customers
• Training hours: Monday to Friday, 9am–5pm
• Training location: 100% office-based for the duration of the academy
• You’ll take your first live calls with support from a peer coach

More training information

Where possible, we ask you not to take holidays during training (this can be discussed with you at interview).

Requirements

Essential qualifications

GCSE in:

5 subjects including Mathematics and English (grade 4/C or above)

Share if you have other relevant qualifications and industry experience. The apprenticeship can be adjusted to reflect what you already know.

Skills

• Communication skills
• Attention to detail
• Organisation skills
• Customer care skills
• Problem solving skills
• Number skills
• Analytical skills
• Logical
• Team working
• Non judgemental
• Patience

Other requirements

• To have lived in the UK for the last 3 consecutive years before the start date
• Be legally permitted to work in the UK without HSBC sponsorship for the full apprenticeship duration, and beyond the apprenticeship end date
• Fluency in English
• Available to work full-time from September 2026, committing to an 18-month apprenticeship programme