A TEAM of experts is offering their expertise for free to help keyworkers.

Independent financial advice firm Sterling and Law Hampshire is running seminars within schools and colleges across the south coast, offering advice and guidance to staff around pensions.

Pensions expert George Rashbrook is delivering the talks, which will help teaching staff and lecturers gain a better understanding of the Teacher’s Pension Scheme.

The seminars will be interactive and easy-to-understand, covering topics such as how benefits are built up, what their benefits in retirement might look like and how their families might also benefit from the scheme.  The aim is to remove jargon and explain the technicalities, helping the teachers to understand in real terms how to ensure a financially secure future.

On March 17 they are hosting a session within Fareham College that is open to any teacher at any school which has not signed up to have its own seminar delivered, to allow teachers from across the region to find out more about their pensions.

George decided to introduce the initiative to give something back to people working in the education sector, which has faced many challenges throughout the last two years, with often little recognition.

He said: ‘I’ve seen first-hand the pressure that education workers are under with my wife being in the profession, and they aren’t always as widely acknowledged as other key workers. Covid certainly added extra strains on top of this.’

He has found that during his 17 years’ experience, a large number of people working within the education sector aren’t as knowledgeable about their pension scheme as they would like to be.

‘I’ve worked with lots of teachers in the past, especially those who are approaching retirement, and have found that many don’t know where to turn for credible guidance about their pension benefits and their wider retirement plans. They tend to be aware that they are members of a truly excellent scheme but that brings with it a vast degree of complexity.

‘This is where we come in, as we want to ensure that their hard work is well and truly rewarded, whether they’re a teacher just starting out in their career and starting to save or someone with years of experience who is thinking about retirement.’

George and his team have delivered talks across the Hampshire area as well as further afield in Surrey and Dorset and are open to contact from other schools who may be interested in taking advantage of this free resource either in person or virtually.

On March 17 they are hosting a session within Fareham College that is open to any teacher at any school which has not signed up to have its own seminar delivered.

Hayden Taylor, CEO of Unloc and education director at Shaping Portsmouth believes the initiative will benefit teachers.

He said: ‘Teachers are often under incredible pressure in the workplace, dealing with a significant workload, and a wealth of information from all angles that they need to absorb, process and share with their students. With so much going on, and playing catch-up with the curriculum post-COVID, it’s easy to push things such as pensions and future retirement to the side-lines and focus on the now. The Covid situation over the past two years has only exacerbated this and pushed retirement to the back of a lot of education professional’s minds.

‘This series of talks from Sterling & Law Hampshire will provide a really accessible and easy way for school and college staff to get their heads around their pension and cut through the jargon to get to the core issues of their future retirement. Working within schools and colleges ourselves we recognise just how beneficial and effective these kinds of sessions are, and I encourage anyone working in this field to come along and join in. It really will help.’

For more information email George.rashbrook@sterlingandlaw.com