Innovate Finance, the independent industry body for UK FinTech, today launches its FinTech for Schools Initiative, with the aim of inspiring the next generation of FinTech leaders and raising young people’s ambitions for innovation in financial services. 

FinTech for Schools is an important piece of Innovate Finance’s Skills and Talent work, which aims to support a future domestic pipeline of talent as well as showcasing the various skills initiatives of its members in one, easily accessible place. 

To celebrate the launch, Innovate Finance, along with a selection of its 200 FinTech members, will be hosting a school event to introduce students to financial services and technology, and demystify one of the UK’s fastest growing sectors: FinTech. 

The FinTech for Schools campaign is designed to encourage young people to understand the increasing importance of digital skills in the workplace, with an emphasis on ensuring the sector is appealing to girls. It has been shown that by the age of 10, children already have a strong sense of identity of what they can and can’t do. Inspiring young girls from an early age, by providing them with a wide variety of role models from diverse backgrounds and skill sets, is a vital first step in creating a new model to deliver real change in terms of diversity. 

The sector continues to grow rapidly and therefore needs to appeal to a diverse workforce to fill the many exciting opportunities within FinTech companies. It is therefore important to target secondary school students to inspire them at this crucial point in their lives, as they make decisions between universities or more specialised further education such as apprenticeships. 

Featured speakers at the school event include City of London Corporation’s Alderman William Russell, Innovate Finance’s CEO Charlotte Crosswell and two representatives from Innovate Finance member firms: Oval Money CEO and Co-Founder Benedetta Arese Lucini and Jonathan Naismith, Business Development Manager at Exate Technology. 

Charlotte Crosswell, CEO of Innovate Finance, commented: “FinTech is one of the UK’s fastest growing industries and one where we hold a strong competitive advantage.  Success is however heavily dependent on talent, which is in short supply both domestically and globally. It is vital that we ensure we are inspiring the next generation of entrepreneurs and innovators, and equipping them with the skills they will need to succeed.  We are committed to working with schools, universities and our larger financial institutions on their schools engagement programmes to ensure a bright future for all.”