KUALA LUMPUR: Financial industry leaders are increasingly noting that a lack of skilled workers is a challenge that needs to be overcome.

In the Pricewaterhouse Coopers Global Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Survey 2015, 70% out of 410 CEOs working in the finance industry acknowledged that limited availability of key skills are a threat to their growth prospects, a sharp increase from 59% of CEOs surveyed last year.

Bearing this in mind, the Finance Accreditation Agency (FAA) aims to bridge the gap between the expectations of leaders in the finance industry and the practical skills of their workforce through its accreditation system of learning programmes in the industry.

FAA CEO Dr Amat Taap Manshor said the agency, supported by Bank Negara Malaysia and the Securities Commission, is a first of its kind in the world and has engaged with over 200 experts in the financial industry to develop the agency’s standards.

“Ninety per cent of our engagement is with industry practitioners, so these standards are the industry’s basic expectations of the kind of skills needed,” he told a media briefing on FAA’s accreditation benefits. “Seventy per cent of the standards are based on practical application of knowledge.”

Amat said the engagement with finance industry practitioners also revealed that their concerns are related to the practicality of the learning module, quality of trainers and assessments of students after the educational programme is completed.

To date, 17 local institutions have been recognised by the FAA, with over 200 learning modules accredited by the agency, out of which 60% are related to Islamic finance.

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on April 1, 2015.