Singapore finance professionals not equipped for the future: poll

EIGHT in 10 Singapore-based finance leaders are not equipped with the skills to meet the requirements of their jobs in the next decade, while six in 10 say the current curriculum offered by education and professional bodies is inadequate to help them develop future-ready skills.

A similar number also said that their organisations are not helping them to be ready for future jobs.

These were the worrying findings from a survey of some 150 accounting and finance professionals from a range of organisations here. The study was commissioned by CPA Australia, in partnership with EY, and was released on Wednesday morning at the CPA Congress 2017, organised by CPA Australia.

"These findings are a wake-up call for all stakeholders in future-skilling our accounting and finance professionals because the profession is facing unprecedented change, with disruptive technology making low-value roles redundant," said Melvin Yong, Singapore country head at CPA Australia.

To equip the workforce with future-ready tools and knowledge, CPA Australia announced on Wednesday the launch of a new training programme called Finance for the Future, in partnership with NTUC and the Employment and Employability Institute (e2i). The new suite of 20 courses aims to expand the technical skills of accounting and finance professionals in areas such as key accounting standards, financial risk management, data analytics and design thinking.