Report of the roundtable held during the 2024 Japan FinTech Festival
July 2024 - This whitepaper draws insights from the "Developing Talent & Building Capacity to Fill the Talent Gap" roundtable at the Japan FinTech Festival, exploring the best practices to bridge the widening skills gap in the industry. The discussion generated actionable insights for the industry and addressed three central themes, including:
Theme 1: Navigating Japan's talent terrain
The modern landscape poses unprecedented challenges as the pace of change accelerates, impacting individuals of all ages. Japan, with its unique demographic factors such as a growing senior population, faces distinct challenges.
This section adopts a comprehensive skills framework SHIME to analyse the current skills landscape in Japan. A critical aspect of the current skills gap in Japan stems from deficiencies in soft skills, such as English proficiency and the absence of a mindset geared towards continuous learning and adaptability.
Theme 2: Role of each stakeholder in addressing this gap
To address the evolving skills gap, the role of various stakeholders, including governments, regulators, and educational institutions, undergo transformation as well. Each entity must recognise their unique role in addressing the gap. The participants highlighted the crucial role of governments to focus on policy implementation and funding support to promote lifelong learning; educational institutions to swiftly update curricula to meet evolving workforce demands; and industry stakeholders to create an environment that fosters experimentation, failing and learning.
Theme 3: Best practices to develop talent and build capacity to fill the talent gap
The financial sector faces a skills gap and talent shortage, necessitating both top-down government involvement and bottom-up individual and corporate responsibility to address it. Key pillars discussed include government support through policy initiatives and skills frameworks to foster inclusivity and support continuous learning. Adaptability and continuous learning are emphasised in the face of technological disruptions, with global collaboration highlighted as essential for leveraging diverse perspectives and expertise to tackle the skills gap effectively and drive innovation in the financial sector.
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