Mr. Mana bin Mohamad Al-Khamsan, CEO of the Financial Academy (FA), said that the finance training market is forecast to hit SR1 billion by the year 2026, while target audience for professional training and certificates is set to grow to 132,000, citing a relevant study that was conducted in 2023.

Al-Khamsan made the statements during an interview with Harvard Business Review magazine. 

"The skills required by labor market are dramatically and rapidly changing, especially when it comes to the financial sector, which necessitates qualifying more human capital in order to close the skill gap," he noted.

The World Economic Forum estimated that AI will replace 85 million jobs across the globe by 2025, stated Al-Khamsan, indicating that half of current employees need to develop new skills. Hence, he urged organizations to take serious and practical steps to invest in their employees and redesign jobs to be more adaptable to change.

Highlighting the Financial Academy's role in supporting KSA's financial sector's directions and developing the capabilities of human cadres, Al-Khamsan said that the FA efforts are driven by an ambitious strategy that is based on four main pillars: The Academy's subject-matter expertise, analyzing the needs within industry, keeping up with the renewed strategies of FA's stakeholder partners, and analyzing the emerging trends in human capital development area.

The CEO further explained that the Academy's strategy aims to build a diverse portfolio of training programs and professional certificates that aligns with the financial sector's targets.

"It is designed to enhance human capital readiness for job roles, upgrade the organizations' internal capabilities and tools to support their strategic direction, promote the culture of excellence and continuous learning, and guarantee financial sustainability."

"Additionally, the FA is committed to advancing cooperation with its strategic partners in Capital Market Authority (CMA), Saudi Central Bank (SAMA), Insurance Authority (IA), as well as its clients and partners in the financial sectors, with a view to strengthening ties with stakeholders, understanding their needs and bringing up innovative solutions that would help improve human competencies and talents."

Al-Khamsan added that the FA results for the year 2023 showed significant growth of indices, including those of training programs, beneficiaries and certificates, with some surging 200 percent.

"The number of training programs grew over 1700; trainees exceeded 37,000; examinees surpassed 31,000; while professional certificates reached 43. These figures are just the initial outcome of a new vision that the FA started to adopt at the beginning of the current year (2024). This vision aspires to make our Academy the number-one option for all finance industry stakeholders seeking to improve and advance the capabilities of their human capital."

Speaking on the Financial Academy's new initiatives aiming to boost the development of financial sector's human resources, the CEO disclosed that the FA launched specialized centers covering all industry subsectors. 

"Each sector is tasked with analyzing a specific sector's professional needs and pitching the proper training solutions accordingly. Two centers for online and leader and board-member training were initiated as well."

Al-Khamsan concluded that the Academy will continue to offer specialized programs and international professional certificates at subsidized costs and expand the scope of its support by providing the financial sector with expert studies and reports that focus on the development of human capabilities.