Doing the maths

But that was two years ago, and the financial world has changed out of all recognition. With dwindling numbers of workers, skills shortages are not an issue, are they? Think again. Figures published in April suggest a considerable fall in the numbers of people taking the sort of qualifications that would enable them to work in the City. As in past recessions, this could be storing up major problems for our industry two years into the future. Come the recovery, the skilled people might not be there to make the most of it.

Impressed as I am by the case for financial mathematics, and the academics would agree, there is more to the crisis than the right kind of maths. For some institutions which have crashed, it has been suggested that, even if they had the right kind of quant skills to draw on, they lacked leaders who were prepared to listen and learn. The same FSSC research that flagged the need for quant skills two years ago also told us that employers were worried about another shortage: the need for increasingly sophisticated “soft” skills such as communication, team working, and in particular good management and leadership. There are a number of initiatives that address leadership issues – for example, Lloyd’s has been working with the London Business School to develop a leadership development programme. But there is also the issue of recruiting the right potential.

Failures in leadership have been a recurring theme in the headlines throughout this last rollercoaster year. Clearly the employers we interviewed were more prescient than even they realised. But it would be nice if the next generation of leaders, as well as being good listeners, team workers and ambassadors for the industry, had the right kind of maths as well.

Teresa Sayers is chief executive of Financial Services Skills Council