BA in Financial Services would bring more talent to market sooner

A Bachelor degree in Financial Services would widen the talent pool available to the industry by bringing more talent to market sooner, the Institute of Financial Services Practitioners’ Austin Sammut told a panel session on fostering a skilled workforce.

Many practitioners in the sector today were either lawyers or accountants who had gone on to specialise, often by studying financial services at Master’s level.

Dr Sammut also proposed a financial services faculty or department be established at the University to make tertiary programmes even more relevant to the industry’s requirements. Additionally, he called on firms to give students better quality work experience and not confine them to carrying out menial tasks.

Dr Sammut was following up on a point made earlier by MCAST’s John Cassar White who pointed out the University’s economics, management and accountancy faculty was producing numerous generalists while the industry required more specialists.

And as the Commerce course was increasingly seeing more female than male students, a progressive industry had to identify new ways to support young mothers throughout their careers. Employers also had to have a long-term vision for their teams and adopt greater flexibility.

One unit within the Malta Financial Services Authority – the Educational Consultative Council – was working to grab younger students’ attention. According to council chairman Charles Farrugia, more than 1,500 students had attended 40 courses it had organised.

Career prospect awareness was being heightened in schools, particularly with the organisation of familiarisation visits for more than 700 students to the regulator’s headquarters.

Meanwhile, the council was working to promote shadowing within the industry further and was currently building on the success of the last three years during which many firms had been impressed with the enthusiasm shown by numerous 14- and 15-year-olds.

Prof. Farrugia explained parents were also being engaged in their children’s career choices through information provided by the MFSA’s ‘careersinfinance’ portal.

He urged further collaboration between the financial services and education sectors so that duplication was avoided and training practices improved.

Prof. Grace Grima, the Education Ministry’s director-general for quality and standards in education, underlined the importance of endowing students with critical thinking skills, particularly by familiarising them better with the real working world.

Prof. Joseph Falzon, head of banking and finance within the University’s FEMA, said the rector himself was supportive of suggestions to extend the STEPS programme to incorporate overseas internships.