In this guest blog for Skills Federation, Claire Tunley, Chief Executive of Financial Services Skills Commission, describes two ambitious projects they are leading to address skills challenges across their sector.
In June, the government unveiled its Industrial Strategy, quickly followed by the sector strategy for financial services – the Growth and Competitiveness Strategy – published by HM Treasury. Both documents recognise the importance of skills as a key driver of growth.
As the body representing the UK financial services sector on skills, we welcome any actions that raise the profile of the skills challenge and help to deliver lasting change. This is central to our mission, and something we have consistently pushed for, on behalf of our members, ever since the Commission was founded just over five years ago.
The Growth and Competitiveness Strategy announced two initiatives, both of which will be led by the Financial Services Skills Commission. The first of these is the production of a financial services ‘skills compact.’ Working in collaboration with the TheCityUK, the City of London Corporation, and Skills England, we will steer the development of this sector-led project to accelerate progress on skills and ensure a financial services sector that has the skills it needs to thrive into the future.
The compact will be targeted, meaningful, and ambitious, while also setting out specific actions for signatories to address skills gaps. The project is in the early stages of development and we are working with stakeholders to agree next steps ahead of an expected publication in the summer of 2026. But in the meantime, we have already set the wheels in motion to form a steering group, representative of our membership and the sector as a whole. The group will include senior representatives from HM Treasury and Skills England, and will be overseen by our Chair, Mark Hoban.
The timing could not be more important. Our most recent Future Skills Report showed firms in the sector are taking concerted action on the skills challenge, and those efforts are beginning to pay off. And yet, there are still 160,000 professionals in the UK financial services sector who need urgent upskilling.
Much of the skills challenge arises from the huge technological disruption facing the industry. The rise and adoption of artificial intelligence will be one of the defining workplace issues of our times and has the potential to transform our sector. What the financial services sector needs is a skilled workforce that can adopt, and embed, AI tools and maximise the huge potential that AI offers. This requires reskilling and upskilling at scale to enhance the valuable knowledge, skills, and experience of our existing workforce.
The second of these Treasury projects is a research project into the impact of AI and other disruptive technologies on skills. This substantive piece of work will assess the impact of AI and other disruptive technologies on the sector’s workforce, and subsequent skill needs over the next 5-10 years. Through the research, we will recommend how action on skills can drive growth and productivity by supporting the innovative adoption of AI, and other disruptive technologies, in financial services.
This will be a robust piece of work, involving significant input from multiple parties – not just the financial services sector and government – and we will be supported by Lloyds Banking Group, PwC, TheCityUK, and The City of London Corporation.
These two projects mark an important moment for the financial services sector. We know from our data that a highly skilled workforce is essential to solving the UK’s productivity challenges and maintaining our competitiveness on the global stage. At the Financial Services Skills Commission, we are proud to be driving this work forward. We will continue to provide a voice on skills in our sector, highlighting the urgent need for upskilling and reskilling the workforce, championing collaboration between employers and government, and ensuring financial services are firmly embedded in the UK’s industrial strategy.
