Singapore, 2nd of November 2022 – CFTE has announced the release of its SHIME skills framework, the first industry tool to evaluate the skills required in Fintech. With the aim of assisting individuals, companies and governments in becoming digital-resilient by skilling themselves, the SHIME framework incorporates the core skills dimensions brought by Fintech to Finance.
Last year, CFTE released the Fintech Job Report, which analysed the 225 largest Fintech companies and 40,000 jobs to create awareness about the new jobs and skills needed in the Fintech ecosystem.
The report has also been launched as a book on Amazon, published by Huy Nguyen Trieu and Tram Anh Nguyen, CFTE’s co-founders, with a vision of making this knowledge accessible to all.
In the continuation of the report, which emphasises the job positions in Fintech, CFTE deepened and dived much more into the skills area. Since the outbreak of the Covid pandemic, we have gone through a difficult period, especially for the economy worldwide. This year, the energy crisis and high inflation issue slowed global economic growth amid more uncertainty. Therefore, developing various abilities in terms of hard and soft skills – but also the right mindset – is essential to become more resilient in the market.
In the Fintech industry – and more broadly in financial services-, the ongoing skills gap is further widening as it is an innovative area where employers’ needs constantly change. It is challenging for companies to find the best candidates with the necessary skill sets; it is also difficult for individuals who want to jump into Fintech roles to evaluate themselves. Accordingly, CFTE developed the SHIME framework to match the skills and job positions in this digitally-evolving financial sector.
”We all know that skills in financial services today are different from a decade ago. It can be challenging for organisations, governments and individuals to identify the important skills, which is why we created the SHIME framework to support those who want to adapt to the new world of finance.” Tram Anh Nguyen, CFTE Co-founder.
With the aim of effectively and efficiently identifying an ideal candidate in Fintech, the SHIME
framework includes different capabilities in five aspects: soft skills, hard skills, industry knowledge, mindset and experience. While it is no doubt that hard skills such as programming and data analysis are essential in Fintech, soft skills and mindset are also the priority for companies to choose a suitable candidate.
Although the framework helps, we want people to understand what skills they have acquired currently. To further develop the evaluation of skills in Fintech, we created the SHIME Fintech assessment, which is built on the elements of the SHIME framework. We aim to provide a thorough evaluation process for individuals to measure their knowledge, skills, and competencies in Fintech.
The skill assessment comprises two formats: peer review and multiple-choice questions. In terms of soft skills and mindset, a friend of the participant will answer a couple of questions to proceed with the assessment. While the hard skills will be tested depending on various roles in Fintech, the industry knowledge is assessed through different questions, from general trends to regulations.
All of the information will be announced at the Singapore Fintech Festival, and CFTE will hold a roundtable about ‘Addressing the new skills gap in financial services’ to push the thinking further around these questions.
Fintech has already started significantly impacting financial services, which accelerated further due to the Covid-19 pandemic. As an industry, Fintech is likely to continue developing rapidly and evolve into a dominant employer in the global job market.
The SHIME framework helps job seekers know what makes them the right fit to fully identify and analyse their skills in different dimensions. And the Fintech skill assessment enables the industry to test the suitability of the employees’ capabilities in various aspects. Combined with both, individuals will have a better understanding of what skills they have and what other skills they need to develop or acquire.
Discover more about the SHIME framework along with the skills assessment here. Come to meet us at the Singapore Fintech Festival and link to the roundtable discussion! We look forward to sharing more information with you.
About CFTE
The Centre for Finance, Technology & Entrepreneurship (CFTE) is a global education platform that aims to equip financial professionals and organisations with the necessary skills to remain competitive
in a rapidly changing industry. With offices in London, Singapore, Hong Kong and Abu Dhabi, CFTE partners with Fortune 500 companies to build their knowledge in Financial Technology, whilst simultaneously supporting their digital transformation process. Our leading training programmes, curated by global industry experts, help talent build skills to join the digital transformation of finance.