FSSC Annual Conference Report

8 November 2007

The Financial Services Skills Council (FSSC) is an independent, employer-led organisation, established in 2004 to provide strategic leadership for education, training and skills development for the financial services industry across the UK.

Its annual conference, “From learner to leader”, was held on Thursday 8 November. The CILA has maintained close liaison with the FSSC and was in attendance at the conference.

Although the FSSC’s remit is greater than life, pensions and investments these topics tended to dominate the conference. However the sessions on training and recruitment covered areas which are also common to loss adjusting and general insurance: maintaining competency in a rapidly changing world and how to recruit the best.

Kitty Usler MP gave an overview of the political implications highlighting that 30% of workers in this sector are from outside the UK. This subject was picked up later in the day by Tracey Hahn (Merrill Lynch) who saw a widening gap between the numeracy and “quant” skills of UK students and their overseas counterparts. A significant proportion of their annual recruitment (6000+) is now from outside the UK and USA. However, she added that skills shortages are best tackled by creating better links with the academic world by way of prizes, student sponsorships and professional participation in courses.

Will Hutton (The Work Foundation) has authored several management books and in his session on “Staying ahead in a Global Economy” he said that the UK is now essentially a “knowledge economy”. At 48% of GDP and 42% of jobs in this area it is the highest in the EU. The skills development challenge for the next decade is ensuring that consumers felt good after a transaction – meaning, self actualization, personalized, experiential were the buzz words. The downside is that in a job satisfaction survey the UK has a high “my job is boring” return, on a par with Eastern Europeans.

The “Devil’s Advocates” sessions in the afternoon debated contentious issues How will the FSA’s Retail Distribution Review add value for the consumer? Does the industry deserve the title professional? Is professionalism all about exams? Why do women in financial services continue to lag behind in the pay stakes?