CII: Advisers are pessimistic about skills outlook

A growing number of financial advisers believe the UK will suffer a skills shortgage within the next decade, according to a study by the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII).

The CII's Skills Report shows 54% of its Personal Finance Society (PFS) members think the country's current approach to skills development could affect the UK's international competitiveness by 2020.

This compares to the 33% who thought the same when questioned last year, and the CII said this "may reflect the specific challenges faced by the advisory sector as a result of regulatory changes such as the Retail Distribution Review".

Asked whether the UK education system was currently meeting the needs of the industry, only 34% of PFS members thought it was doing well, compared to 57% among the CII's life and pensions members and 61% among underwriters.

Overall, 77% of the 2,884 people polled in July said there was a shortage of technical skills in key areas of their business, with the same proportion saying this was having a detrimental impact on their performance.

CII president Julian James said: "This is a long-term problem and, if we don't start to solve it, we will have fallen behind our competition in less than a decade.

"This is why the CII has created and is actively promoting its skills programme. We need to get young people interested in what we do, and then provide them with the training they need to ensure the long-term competitiveness of our industry."