The Financial Services Skills Council (FSSC) has just launched the Skills Bill, an 18-month UK-wide programme of work designed to provide much-needed solutions to the skills issues which affect the performance of financial services businesses.
Forums are now being held across the UK so that employers can have their say about skills needs and priorities for government funding.
The FSSC will review education and training provision at all levels in order to map it against employers' needs and identify gaps and areas for improvement.
Education and training providers and funding bodies will be consulted on how they can ensure that the skills needs of employers are met.
There will then be further consultation with employers in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to establish what measures they are likely to sign up to.
The outcome of this process will be a costed action plan - known as a Sector Skills Agreement - for each of the four nations.
The agreement, to be published in third quarter 2007, will set out exactly what skills are needed by employers and how these skills will be funded and supplied.
It will be signed up to by employers and everyone who plans, funds and supplies education and training. Its implementation will be led by the FSSC.
Teresa Sayers, FSSC chief executive, said: “This is an opportunity for the financial services industry to transform the way skills are developed and delivered in the UK. If employers want to ensure that the skills they need from their people are the skills that they get, they must get involved now and have their say.”
