Firms to focus on up-skilling existing employees

Despite the slightly odd timing, considering most financial services firms in Ireland are looking to scale back staff numbers currently, a government-backed training scheme for the industry has been given the green light and is set to be formally rolled out in the next few weeks.

The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment has earmarked €1m for Finuas - a programme which aims to develop skills within the financial services sector - for 2009.

It's divided between four 'networks', which will liaise with participating companies and provide specialised courses ranging full-length degrees to seminars and conferences across various sectors within the financial services industry.

The project is a collaboration between the government and international firms like Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Citi, Pioneer and State Street.

However, it's been developed over a number of years, and is only coming to fruition now. Couldn't the timing have been better?

Brendan Kelly, of Financial Services Ireland who leads the Summit Finuas Network, says: "Clearly, the events of the last 18 months caused us to stop and think about whether it was still required. However, having consulted widely with the industry we're satisfied that there continues to be certain skills-gaps in the Irish market that can be addressed with a policy initiative such as this."

The programme isn't an attempt to attract more people to the industry, but up-skill those already employed in financial services. Kelly says though there's less of a demand to add new headcount, there's still a need to train existing employees.

The sectors included within the training scheme include, banking, capital markets, investment management and the funds sector as well as legal roles and those connected to aviation financing.

Kelly says that there's a particular need for provide training for people within operational management and risk management as well as areas involving advanced quantitative skills.

It's important to add that Finuas is only available to institutions and not individuals, but it's aiming to provide training for 1,000 people in its first year.

More details on the specific training schemes are expected to appear on the individual networks' websites in the next few weeks.