Among other government initiatives to transform the Singapore economy, a new initiative Skills Framework was launched to upskill the finance talent of Singapore. With fintech booming in Singapore, it is absolutely crucial to ensure an influx of talent in the finance space and ensuring they are up to speed with global practices and standards, especially in the face of technology. 

Finance professionals will now be able to upgrade their skills and remain relevant to the industry under the newly launched framework. Education Minister Ong Ye Kung has urged financial institutions to use the skills framework to develop their staff even as the government rolls out initiatives to develop talent.

The Minister stated, “Despite technological advancement, the basic functioning of the industry still depends predominantly on traditional professional and technical skills, institutional knowledge and customer relationships. What has changed is that all workers performing these tasks need to now familiarize themselves with technology."

The Skills Framework was developed together by IBF, MAS, SkillsFuture Singapore, and Workforce Singapore with the intent of enabling all finance professionals in Singapore to identify skills they need to equip themselves with to stay relevant as technology makes its way. 

For instance, an economist whose job includes company and industry research for investment will need skills such as business needs analysis, computational thinking and strategic planning. They can then take courses recommended by the IBF to make sure that their skills meet the required levels for their job and are up-to-date.

In this direction, the United Overseas Bank will be integrating the new skills framework into its in-house program, so its staff can better identify the skills they need to get ahead in their respective careers.

The launch comes at an opportune time. A report released in April found that about 100 out of 121 positions in the financial sector would be merged or changed because technology would render their repetitive tasks obsolete. Hence it is a welcome step by the government to help people upskill for the oncoming changes and to augment and adapt.

Given the scale at which the Singaporean economy is flourishing and introducing new digital opportunities across sectors, initiatives like Skills Framework are crucial to providing tailored upskilling programs to the present and future workforce. Earlier this month, online shopping platform Shopee, professional networking service LinkedIn, and digital security firm Avast also announced to provide additional training content to upskill Singapore workers for the digital age through a partnership with NTUC LearningHub (NTUC LHUB) and SkillsFuture Singapore.