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Career Area

Finance

Finance includes: accountancy, banking and building societies, financial planning, insurance, investment management and pensions. Scotland is the second largest financial sector in the UK after London and the south east. It is also one of Europe's leading financial centres as well as one of the world's largest fund management centres. The financial services industry is a key industry in Scotland, employing around 91,000 people, just under 5% of the Scottish workforce. The industry includes a wide range of different careers and areas of work including: sales, customer service, IT, financial advice, management, administration and business support. The main centres for the industry are Edinburgh, Glasgow, Perth, Stirling, Dundee and Aberdeen. However, a wide range of businesses and organisations throughout Scotland employ financial services workers. Despite ongoing economic uncertainty, optimism in the industry is once again starting to grow as the economy shows signs of recovery. There are some signs of a growth in recruitment in financial services, although growth varies by level of entry and sector. Employment levels in the industry rose by 7.8% in 2012, compared to a fall of 1.8% in 2011. But current levels are still below the 2009 level of 94,000. Here are a few interesting facts about the financial services sector in Scotland:

  • Banking is the largest employer and accounts for nearly half of employment in the financial services sector in Scotland.
  • 28% of all Life and Pensions employment in the UK is in Scotland.
  • 76% of employees work full time and 23% of employees are part time.
  • Average full time earnings in Scotland for the industry are £29,000, which is more than the overall Scottish average of £28,500.

Skills you need to have or develop to work in this area You must be:

  • good at working with numbers
  • accurate and well organised
  • good at communicating with people, both verbally and in writing
  • good at dealing with customers and providing them with information
  • able to identify solutions to problems.

Routes into financial services You may be able to get into some jobs by doing a Modern Apprenticeship in Providing Financial Services or Accounting. A lot of people take a college or university course before starting work. In Scotland, 21% of all financial services employees have SVQ Level 2 or below qualifications, 28% have SVQ Level 3 qualifications, 14% have Higher National Diploma (HND) or equivalent SVQ Level 4 qualifications and 36% have a degree. An increasing number of financial services companies, including Deloitte and KPMG are offering School and College Leaver programmes leading to relevant professional qualifications or degrees, or both. There are courses at all levels from a 1-year National Qualification (NQ), through Higher National Certificate (HNC) and Higher National Diploma (HND) to a 4-year degree and postgraduate and professional qualifications. Several professional bodies offer qualifications you can take while you are working. There are no formal entry requirements for studying some of the qualifications offered by the Association of Accounting Technicians (AAT). If you have a Higher National Diploma (HND) or degree, or you are a member of the AAT, you can take professional qualifications. Workforce statistics

  • 23% are managers or senior officials with median earnings of £53,000 a year.
  • 20% are associate professional and technical staff' with median earnings of £29,000 a year.
  • 41% are administration, secretarial, sales or customer service staff with median earnings of £19,900 a year.
  • 16% are 'other' staff with median earnings of £38,300 a year.
More information We have split the job profiles for this career area into 2 sectors:
  • Accountancy
  • Other Financial Work
The job profiles are linked to relevant courses available throughout Scotland. The Financial Services Partnership website Directions is also a useful source of information.

Sources

Scotland analysis: Financial services and banking – HM Government, May 2013

Salary Survey Scotland 2013, Core-Asset Consulting

The Strategy for the Financial Services Industry in Scotland Annual Report – 2012/13

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