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The UK’s financial, professional and business services sector currently accounts for a huge one in seven of all jobs outside London, and collectively provide 5.5m jobs across the UK, highlighting how vital it is to the UK economy and how important the role of accounting lecturer is.
In a report that was published by the Professional & Business Services Council and the Financial Services Skills Commission, the Policy Chair, City of London Corporation, Catherine McGuinness, expressed her wish to see the sector put “inclusivity, sustainability and innovation” at the core of its forward-thinking strategy.
Entitled ‘Skills for future skills’, the report has called for the implementation of an eight-point plan. The plan takes on board the fact that “urgent action [is needed] to build an enduring skills culture across the UK”. It calls for unity across the government, employers, colleges and higher education institutions to unlock growth in the financial sector. Further education (FE) accounting lecturers will be key to this plan.
The eight parts of the plan are as follows:
· Build a lifelong learning culture across the sector.
· Increase the supply of tech skills and digital literacy across the sector (and wider economy).
· Ensure that efforts to build a skilled workforce are underpinned by a commitment to diversity and inclusion.
· Enhance strategic workforce planning capabilities across the sector to identify future skills needs.
· Support mid-career retraining through an employer-led skills brokerage service and clearer pathways into the sector.
· Attract and retain highly skilled talent across the regions through strengthening the talent pipeline and locating senior roles in regions.
· Boost the availability of skills across the regions through strategic collaborations between employers, education providers, and regional government.
· Develop regional centres of specialisation, building on clusters that already exist.
Legal and accounting apprenticeships accounted for the majority within the financial sector. This equated to over 10,000 starts out of a total pool of around 40,000 apprentices in 2019-20, according to the report.
Among the many changes to legislation following Brexit, all firms must use UK-adopted international accounting standards (IAS) rather than EU adopted IAS for financial years beginning on or after 1 January 2021 when preparing annual accounts. There are certain firms that need not take any further action.
It would be prudent, therefore, for accounting lecturers to familiarise themselves with the legislation changes. A report released by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) looks at the ramifications for the financial sector as a result of the triggering of Article 50. The ICAEW’s report states: “The government should, in due course, seize the opportunity Brexit provides for a more profound review of UK company law, rationalising and simplifying the scope and content of the accounting and related provisions, and revisiting the balance between law and standards, with a deregulatory outcome in mind.”
It then calls for “close consultation with the accountancy profession and other financial reporting stakeholders in order to minimise the risk of unintended consequences”.
In August 2021, the head of the Association for Chartered Certified Accountants UK (ACCA), Claire Bennison, called on the government to adapt its policies to enable the financial services sector to continue to access high-level candidates as the UK looks to emerge from the coronavirus pandemic.
She explained that “it’s more important than ever that the UK has a strong pipeline of professional and ethical business advisors, as we seek to boost productivity and take advantage of new opportunities”.
Speaking in the wake of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Accounting for Growth’s call for evidence ahead of a new report on how the country can boost financial and professional skills, John Howell, Conservative MP for Henley and chair of the APPG, asserted that the report aims to help “put the UK economy on a good footing for recovery”.
Howell said: “This inquiry will explore what skills our economy needs as we come out of recovery and how the financial and professional services sector is supporting upskilling.”
The APPG’s inquiry and subsequent report are being supported by The Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA). Andrew Harding, chief executive of Management Accounting at CIMA, stated: “To be successful in the post-Brexit COVID world, we must develop a culture of learning and innovation and embrace change – or risk being left behind.”
The government’s apprenticeships, Help to Grow and Lifetime Skills Guarantee schemes will all be used to empower the inquiry as it seeks to get a better handle on how these can be adapted to meet the needs of the financial sector, as well as the wider UK economy.
Harding added: “Finance professionals need to focus on driving business performance and productivity. We welcome this inquiry and look forward to supporting the process and the outcomes across both the financial and professional services sector.”
Managing director at accounting recruitment firm AJ Chambers, Andrew Hilliard, has described the need to nurture the talent pool in the UK, underlining the crucial role that FE accounting lecturers can play in future-proofing the UK’s financial sector.
“There probably needs to be a bit more done in terms of firms engaging with colleges and universities, and actually building relationships with these young people who are deciding which direction to take their careers in,” Hilliard explained.
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