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This article was written by Barry McCall and first published on IrishTimes.com on October 14th, 2022. 

Pictured: Professor John Cotter, head of banking and finance at the UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School

The Government’s Ireland for Finance strategy has set out an ambition to grow employment in Ireland’s international financial services sector from 44,000 at the beginning of 2019 to 50,000 by 2025. And it is anticipated that much of that growth will come from the burgeoning area of sustainable finance.

“It’s a growing industry and that is generating demand for talent,” says Prof John Cotter, head of banking and finance at the UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School. “We are now approaching the point where every person employed in the industry will have some link to sustainable finance. That will apply to everyone, regardless of whether they are the CEO or someone who has just walked in the door. The nature of that link will depend on their role but that will drive massive demand for skills in the space. There is a lot of training and education to be done. Repeated upskilling will also be required.”

In that context it is little surprise that an emerging skills gap has been identified by the industry. One of the key findings of the Financial Services in Ireland – Skills of the Future report produced by Financial Services Ireland, the Ibec body representing the industry, and the Irish Financial Services Skillnet earlier this year is that there is “a growing gap between the current availability of sustainable finance skills and what will be required to support growth in the field”.

Read the full article on IrishTimes.com here.