The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has committed S$35million to upskill and reskill specialists in sustainable finance and has joined forces with the Institute of Banking and Finance (IBF), supported by Workforce Singapore (WSG), to launch a new Sustainable Finance Jobs Transformation Map (JTM).

The new JTM lays out the impact of sustainability trends on jobs in the financial services sector in Singapore, as well as the emerging skills that the workforce will require to serve sustainable financing demand in the region.

Carolyn Neo, chief executive officer at IBF, discussed the move: “The launch of the Sustainable Finance JTM serves as a timely resource for financial institutions and individuals to identify new specific skillsets needed to stay resilient and future-ready.

“IBF’s new Skills Badge will provide a common industry benchmark to recognise individuals’ acquisition of sustainable finance skills, and facilitate upskilling, skills-based hiring and job mobility. IBF will continue to curate new training programmes in sustainable finance, to meet growing demand and enhance individuals’ access to relevant quality courses.”

A recent JTM study, conducted by KPMG in Singapore, projects that the sustainable finance market in ASEAN over the next decade will amount to between S$4trillion ($2.9trillion) and S$5trillion ($3.7trillion). It explained that a skilled workforce will strengthen Singapore’s ability to serve the growing sustainable finance market in ASEAN and Singapore’s financial services sector workforce should aim to undergo upskilling within the next three years to seize these opportunities.

Recognising this, MAS has set aside S$35million ($25.7million) in the Financial Sector Development Fund to support upskilling and reskilling, and develop specialists in sustainable finance over the next three years.

Grasping opportunities in sustainable finance

MAS and IBF are also set to introduce several initiatives to help upskill the financial services sector workforce. These include expanding the suite of sustainable finance courses for individuals, by developing two undergraduate programmes focused on sustainable finance.

They also plan to implement an IBF Skills Badge to recognise industry professionals’ acquisition of sustainable finance skills.

Chia Der Jiun, managing director at MAS, also said: “ASEAN’s sizeable sustainable financing needs over the next decade present significant opportunities for Singapore’s financial centre to support the region’s transition to net zero.

“MAS is strongly supportive of efforts across financial institutions and the training providers to upskill the financial services sector workforce in a timely fashion. I encourage professionals to tap on the available support and deepen their sustainable finance capabilities to capture these opportunities.”

The JTM study also revealed that over 50,000 professionals in the financial services sector will see new sustainable finance-related tasks added to their jobs to a moderate to high degree.

Dilys Boey, chief executive at WSG, also added: “Through WSG’s collaboration with MAS and IBF, the Sustainable Finance JTM marks a significant step towards building a skilled workforce to serve the growing sustainable finance market in Singapore and ASEAN. It underscores our commitment to equip Singaporeans with the skills and knowledge needed to thrive in the evolving landscape of sustainable finance, while contributing to the nation’s sustainability goals.

“Financial institutions can tap on WSG’s CCP for Financial Services to equip mid-career new hires and existing financial services professionals with the emerging skills like sustainable finance instruments or sustainability risks, necessary to support the financial sector achieve its sustainable finance goals.”

As new technologies emerge onto the fintech scene, some organisations are finding it difficult to keep their employees up to date on the latest ways to interact with said tech. To remove this pain point, Accenture, the information tech and consulting firm, has launched Accenture LearnAdvantage. 

Accenture LearnAdvantage provides Accenture clients with comprehensive technology learning and training services. In turn, this will help them reskill and upskill their people in technology, data and AI to reinvent their organisations and achieve greater business value.

The new service is designed to help leaders across industries and governments quickly identify gaps in relevant skills being created by advances in technologies. Following this, it then provides industry-specific training needed to fill those gaps at speed and scale.

This includes delivering highly personalised learning experiences for a wide range of technical and business users, from specialised AI and data science, cloud and cyber security training for IT professionals to Gen AI training for board and c-suite members and business leaders.

The company will invest $1billion in Accenture LearnVantage over three years and has agreed to acquire Udacity to build on and scale for clients Accenture’s deep experience in learning and training and meet rising demand for technology skills, including generative AI.

Targeting painpoints

According to Accenture research, business leaders say their number one challenge is their inability to upskill their workforces, with 51 per cent of organisations starting to see negative impacts from worsening IT skills shortages. In addition, 94 per cent of workers say they want to learn new skills to work with generative AI, but only five per cent of organisations provide gen AI training at scale.

“We are passionate about helping our clients become ‘talent creators’—with people at the centre of their reinvention using technology, data and AI—and a critical part of that is investing in industry-specific training and technology skills development,” said Julie Sweet, chair and CEO, Accenture.

“We are scaling Accenture’s deep capabilities as a world-class learning organization to help our clients meet their business growth objectives and enable their people to develop the relevant skills they need to make the most of the opportunities that technological change is bringing.”

Merck case study

Accenture has helped many enterprises upskill their workforces for business reinvention, including biopharmaceutical company Merck, known as MSD outside of the United States and Canada.

“Digital, data, analytics and AI are touching every part of what we do as a company as technology plays a pivotal role in discovering, developing, manufacturing, and providing access for patients to medicines and vaccines,” said Dave Williams, executive vice president, chief information and digital officer, Merck.

“To continue delivering on our promise to use the power of leading-edge science to save and improve lives around the world, we are developing and investing in our people. We have launched a groundbreaking generative AI training program for our employees in partnership with Accenture to create world-class digital leaders.”

Accenture invests more than $1billion per year in a wide range of learning and training for its more than 700,000 people, delivering approximately 40 million training hours annually. For example, training is helping Accenture achieve its goals to double its deeply skilled data and AI practice professionals to 80,000, and the company is rolling out training for 250,000 technology professionals by the end of fiscal 2024. Accenture has already trained more than 600,000 of its people in the fundamentals of AI.

Tailoring learning and education

Accenture has invested to create an AI-native learning platform that seamlessly integrates with an organisation’s existing learning platforms. With the help of an AI recommendation engine, the platform curates the best learning content from Accenture and third-party providers to offer a personalised learning journey that aligns with priority areas of learning.

Accenture LearnVantage will offer tailored technology learning programs; specialised, predesigned technology academies; ecosystem learning certification services; and managed services for a client’s own learning capabilities. LearnVantage also will offer nanodegrees, certified online programs designed to provide users with hands-on experience and industry-relevant skills in specialised fields.

The acquisition of Udacity will bring to Accenture the company’s capabilities in integrating proprietary content, expert services and scalable learning technology. This also aligns with Accenture’s long-standing approach to learning through formal training, learning by doing and coaching by experts.

Udacity provides localised course offerings in multiple languages, including English, Arabic, Korean and Spanish. Udacity’s more than 230 professionals will join the Accenture LearnVantage business. Accenture LearnVantage’s full set of services will be available later this year following the closing of the acquisition.

Working with partners across the ecosystem

Accenture LearnVantage will work with technology ecosystem partners, including Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud and Microsoft, to provide generative AI content, industry-relevant technology training and cloud certifications for their joint clients. It will also work with additional world-class learning partners, such as Pluralsight, Coursera, Workera and Skillsoft.

“The rapid rise of generative AI has grown our clients’ need for training and upskilling their people in cloud, data and AI as they build their digital core, which is essential for reinvention,” said Kishore Durg, global lead of Accenture LearnVantage. “Accenture LearnVantage will help our clients not only advance their business goals but also help their people build the skills they will need for the next waves of technology change.”