Professional qualifications in finance: Bank of Russia’s survey
According to the findings of the Bank of Russia and the research company ROMIR, the level of satisfaction with specialists’ professional qualifications among companies in the Russian financial market equals 63%. The regulator formed the new composite index of financial institutions’ satisfaction with professional qualifications and quantified it for the first time. The quantification was made based on a survey among representatives of credit institutions, the securities and collective investment markets, and other financial market segments.
At least 40% of representatives of credit institutions and the securities and collective investment markets report that they hire inexperienced university graduates. However, over 60% of respondents in each of the segments complained about a lack of practical skills among young specialists.
The three most demanded skills are the understanding of work processes, the ability to learn quickly, and the skill to find and process information. The essential competencies in digital finance are the ability to work with basic and specialised software and the knowledge of corporate cybersecurity tools. More than 90% of respondents believe that advanced training is important to improve the efficiency of one’s work.
Most companies are facing staff shortages, especially when searching for middle-ranking employees and candidates to executive positions. Difficulties in recruiting middle-ranking employees were reported by 96% of credit institutions, 87% of securities and collective investment market participants, and 88% of companies operating in other segments of the financial market. Serious problems with hiring executives were reported by over a third of representatives of the said organisations.
‘Our goal is to create an instrument for regular monitoring of the industry’s opinion on the level of professional qualifications. This index can be used to create and upgrade educational programmes, analyse current trends in the labour market in finance, and develop measures to address staff shortages,’ noted Director of the Bank of Russia University Andrey Afonin.
The development of this index is provided for in the Strategy for the Development of the Financial Market of the Russian Federation Until 2030.