In our latest Spotlight on Higher Education blog, Supta Das tells us about her Graduate Apprenticeship in IT management at Heriot-Watt University and how it helped her develop the key skills she needed to navigate to world of work and thrive in her current role at EY Scotland.

New figures from TheCityUK show that employment in Scotland’s financial and related professional services industry increased by around 13,000 between 2021 and 2022, highlighting the strength of our post-covid recovery.

As part of Scottish Apprenticeship Week 2024, we asked the latest addition to the SFE team, Lana McGill to write a blog for us discussing her office administration apprenticeship, what she has learned over the past 6 months and how she feels she has progressed since joining.

Read our response to the Chancellor’s budget statement here.

If you’d like to be part of a growing industry, fancy a career change, or are looking to gain new skills and experience, consider an apprenticeship in Scotland’s financial services industry.

Marking Scottish National Apprenticeship week, Professor Gillian Murray of Heriot-Watt University has written in The Scotsman to highlight the important role that graduate apprenticeships can play in tackling the fintech skills gap.

JP Morgan has unveiled a major new investment in Edinburgh for its private banking and wealth management division, further cementing the firms commitment to Scotland ahead of the opening of its new technology hub in Glasgow later this year.

In our next spotlight on higher education blog, Matej Mezes, of PwC provides insight on his accountancy degree at Edinburgh Napier University whilst working a full time job as a duty manager at the Edinburgh University Pleasance gym before eventually landing a place on the Actuarial Services Graduate Programme at PwC.

After receiving the rising star award at the 2023 Scottish Financial Services Awards, Rachel Coleman of Pinsent Masons has shared a blog with us outlining her current role, the work she carried out that enabled her to win the award and how it felt to receive such recognition.

In our first spotlight on higher education blog, Robert Glover from abrdn shares his career story to date, his regret at not pursuing higher education early in his career but how he has now corrected this through applying to a graduate apprenticeship scheme where he is now working towards a full Bsc Hon degree as a data scientist.

FinTech Scotland has launched its inaugural innovation challenge, which aims to encourage firms to share best practices on new solutions to key financial regulatory challenges. Fintechs and other teams of innovators are invited to join the challenge, with applications open now.

Our new Ways of Working report with CMS launches today and includes a range of insights on the latest trends and patterns in hybrid-working across Scotland’s financial and related professional services industry.

First Minister Humza Yousaf will travel to London this week to take part in a number of events in partnership with the City of London Corporation, including agreeing an enhanced framework to promote Scotland and London as centres of excellence for financial services.

In his latest Thunderer column Sandy argues that innovative solutions to the funding challenge can be found by working more closely with business.

Origo Chief Executive and SFE board member, Anthony Rafferty has shared an insight blog with us diving into the importance of a company having a why. In the blog Anthony shares examples of his business Origo’s why and also expresses the need for no more paper-based processes in the workplace whilst providing examples of what Origo are doing to address this.

Scottish Financial Enterprise were pleased to add our name to the following open letter, urging the Scottish Government to prioritise economic growth and ensure Scotland remains an attractive place to live, work and invest.

In this interview in The Herald Scotland Business HQ Magazine, our Chief Executive, Sandy Begbie discusses the aims and ambitions of our new sector growth strategy and why we believe Scotland's financial services industry has all the ingredients for sustainable, inclusive growth that can benefit everyone in Scotland.

Find out about our Gender Equality Network in this interview in The Times Business Magazine with the Chair of GEN, Jackie Leiper where she discusses the progress we are making and the areas which we need to address, as well her own experiences and motivations for a more inclusive sector and the women in finance who inspire her.

Our Chief Executive Sandy Begbie spoke with Matt Bendoris at The Sun about our campaign to work with our banking and fintech members, regulators and Financial Inclusion for Scotland to offer basic bank accounts to everyone in Scotland.

Our Chief Executive, Sandy Begbie CBE FRSE, Chief Executive, comments on the Chancelor’s 2023 Autumn Statement.