The Luxembourg Sustainable Finance Initiative (LSFI) published a report on the training offering for professionals active in the financial sector. While it found both gaps regarding the specificity and diversity of courses offered, it also highlighted the quality of Luxembourg’s sustainable finance course offering.
Founded in 2020 by the ministry of finance and the ministry of environment, climate and sustainable development, among other parties, the LSFI is a non-profit mandated to implement the Luxembourg Sustainable Finance Strategy.
To make headway in this mandate, the LSFI got together with 12 experts from Luxembourg’s financial industry institutions, consulting firms and research organisations to assess the training offering for professionals to obtain more knowledge and skills regarding sustainable finance.
“With this working group, we wanted to understand better what the newly needed skills are, where the Luxembourg sustainable finance training offering stands, what are the gaps and how we can cover them,” explains Nicoletta Centofanti, LSFI General Manager.
Specificity and diversity lacking
Analysing 37 training courses offered by 10 training providers over the course of 6 months, the working group found gaps in two main areas. Firstly, they identified that among the training courses analysed, none covered a specific topic for a particular job profile. This is particularly concerning as selling ESG products is becoming increasingly important.
Secondly, the report found that there was a lack of diversity regarding the course offering. Some topics that had been identified as needed for certain job profiles were not covered by more than two to three courses which was deemed insufficient by the working group.
Lastly, some courses that were lacking both at the generalist and advanced level were: ESG integration in stock and bond selection and analysis, How ESG ratings are built and Fintech applications to support sustainable finance, among others.
Overall outlook and strengths
“Despite these gaps, we have also observed that the Luxembourg sustainable finance training offering generally stays abreast of the needs of the sector, providing relevant and various courses to foster sustainable finance education,” said Patrick Levaldaur, CEO of EFPA Luxembourg.
When compared internationally, Luxembourg’s course offering was deemed well aligned, especially considering that “most of the gaps found at [the] Luxembourg level also existed among the international offering”.
In general, the report found that “the Luxembourg sustainable finance training offering presents a high degree of completion”, with numerous training institutions to choose from and a variety of themes covered. To read the full 37-page report, see here.
