After working in insurance sales for more than
six years, Mr Shawn Rowan, 34, wanted to switch to a corporate role
in the finance industry and pursued a Master of Science in Applied
Finance at the Singapore Management University.
Armed with his master's, he sent more than 100 job
applications over the past year for a compliance or operational
job, but he has received only a couple of calls for an
interview.
Mr Rowan, a Singaporean who used to earn between $3,000
to $8,000 a month and is willing to take a pay cut, believes his
lack of suitable working experience is the main reason behind the
rejections.
A study released yesterday by recruitment consultancy
firm Robert Half backed his suspicions - more than half of the
financial services firms surveyed say that the lack of necessary
experience is the key reason why it is hard to find skilled
professionals here.
The annual study, which surveyed 100 chief financial
officers (CFOs) and finance directors in Singapore, also revealed
that 66 per cent think that millennial finance professionals (aged
between 22 and 40) are the most challenging to recruit and are
partnering with universities to combat the generational skills
shortage as the baby boomer generation gradually exits the
workforce.
To address the demand for various financial services
skill sets, Mr Patrick Tay, assistant secretary-general of the
National Trades Union Congress (NTUC), announced the launch of a
new Professional Conversion Programme (PCP). (See report on page
4.)
OCBC Bank is the first financial
institution piloting the company-initiated PCP. It will train and
convert new hires into compliance-related roles.
"This is key given the general
shortage of compliance talent in Singapore, especially in
anti-money laundering and sanctions," said Ms Jacinta Low, head of
HR planning, OCBC Bank.
The PCP is one of the programmes
rolled out by the Government under the Adapt and Grow initiative,
which aims to help Singaporeans adjust to changing job demands and
grow their skills.
In a blog post on Monday, NTUC's Mr
Tay pointed out that although the financial and insurance sector
saw 2,310 redundancies last year, there were approximately 2,800
vacancies in the financial industry.
He wrote: "The sector appears to be
experiencing a churn (rather) than a literal declining plateau.
"Old jobs are gone but new ones are
created at digital speed."
Associate Professor Trevor Yu from
Nanyang Business School's (NBS) division of strategy, management
and organisation thinks that skills involving the application of
computing and mathematics within the realm of finance are also
highly sought after but are in short supply.
He said: "There are not many higher
level educational institutions offering such courses.
"NBS is one of the few around. It
is also hard to find people with the ability and aptitude to pursue
training in such areas.
"Typically, it takes a lot of
investment in terms of time and lost income (especially for finance
professionals who tend to be already highly paid) to be upskilled
in these latest skills."
Mr Rowan is not giving up on his
job search and has been going for Chinese classes, as well as
reading widely on related topics such as fintech and blockchain
(technology underpinning the digital currency bitcoin).
Under the new company-initiated Professional
Conversion Programme (PCP), employers have the flexibility to
customise training for new hires.
They can also leverage on the PCP
to redeploy existing staff who are at risk of redundancy into jobs
in growth areas.
Participating financial
institutions will receive funding from Workforce Singapore for
salary support and training subsidies.
Ms Jacinta Low, head of human
resource planning at OCBC Bank, the financial institution piloting
the PCP, said: "The new company-initiated PCP allows us to explore
alternative sources of manpower to build up our pipeline of
compliance officers."
Mr Patrick Tay, co-chairman of the
Financial Sector Tripartite Committee, said this new initiative
will enable financial institutions to be more agile and have a
supply of skilled workers quickly.
"In (this)day and age where
technology is advancing rapidly leading to job churns in the
industry, training needs to be fast and efficient to meet the
ever-changing needs of the industry."
Professionals, Managers and
Executives (PMEs) who wish to find opportunities, upgrade
themselves and take on jobs in the financial sector can expect a
series of events in the next few days.
Financial Services Week, which will
run till Friday at the One Marina Boulevard NTUC Centre, will
feature industry mentoring sessions, a career preparatory workshop
and career fair.
There, PMEs can learn from industry
experts about the challenges and opportunities in the financial
sector.
The career fair will see a total of
250 jobs offered by seven employers - Citibank Singapore, HSBC
Singapore, Maybank, OCBC Bank, UOB, Standard Chartered Singapore
and AAM Advisory - in areas such as compliance, wealth management,
relationship management and technology.
TNP