22 January 2021
Financial Services Skills Commission responds to Skills for Jobs White Paper
The Department for Education has published a new paper ‘Skills for Jobs: Lifelong Learning for Opportunity and Growth’.
Commenting on the paper, Claire Tunley, Chief Executive officer of the Financial Services Skills Commission, said:
“This paper lays out an ambitious set of recommendations which, if delivered, will support businesses to address the growing skills gap in areas of digital and technological skills.”
“The increased role for employers is an important step to making sure we are delivering the skills they want and employees need to succeed and progress. Our work with some of the UKs biggest financial services employers is helping businesses to understand and address their skills gaps. By working with employers, we are identifying the future skills needs of the financial services sector and this work aligns with the government’s ambitions.”
“Another positive proposal in this paper is the call for a national skills fund and lifetime skills guarantee. More than 200,000 UK Financial Services workers do not have a Level 3 qualification, and we believe that this offer will be beneficial to the future of businesses and the workforce who can make use of this offer, preparing them for the jobs of the future.”
The Financial Services Skills Commission is currently undertaking work, supported by BEIS, looking at how the skills needs of businesses vary across the UK regions and nations. This work aligns strongly with the Local Skills Improvement Plans and will help set out the position of financial and professional business services sector firms.