Prime Highlights-
- Chancellor Rachel Reeves is set to launch a new City skills compact committing major firms to retrain thousands of financial sector workers for the AI era.
- Nearly 20 initial signatories, including the London Stock Exchange, Nationwide and Fidelity, will begin drafting three-year training plans to build critical workplace skills.
Key Facts-
- The UK’s financial and professional services industry contributes about 11 percent of total economic output and employs around 2.5 million people.
- Firms will report their training progress annually to the Treasury and the Financial Services Skills Commission.
Background-
Chancellor Rachel Reeves is preparing to launch a new City skills compact, committing major financial firms including Barclays and Lloyds to retrain thousands of workers and help them build strong AI capabilities. The initiative will be announced during her Mansion House speech to City leaders.
The government-backed compact will support employers in strengthening workers’ skills, helping them stay well positioned as technology continues to advance across the financial sector.
Nearly 20 initial signatories, including the London Stock Exchange, Nationwide building society and asset manager Fidelity, will begin drafting three-year plans to train and certify UK staff in up to five key skills, with AI at the center of the effort.
Progress under the compact will be reported each year to the Treasury and the Financial Services Skills Commission, with senior executives at each firm overseeing their internal training programmes.
The initiative is designed to help the UK’s financial sector, a significant contributor to the country’s industrial strategy, remain strong and competitive as new technologies continue to reshape the industry.
The UK’s financial and related professional services sector accounts for about 11 percent of total economic output and supports around 2.5 million jobs, according to industry body TheCityUK.
Claire Tunley, Chief Executive of the Financial Services Skills Commission, who has helped lead the initiative, described it as one of the most significant sector-wide skills strategies introduced in decades.
She said the scale and pace of change driven by generative AI is creating strong momentum for employers to invest in their workforce.
Founding signatories of the scheme include Standard Chartered, Yorkshire building society, Lloyd’s of London and online bank Zopa, reflecting broad industry support for building a highly skilled, future-ready financial workforce across the UK.
