Midlands

Financial services in the Midlands is clustered around Birmingham with more than a third of all financial services employees working in the city. Birmingham’s main focus is on the banking, general insurance and credit subsectors. However, all subsectors of the financial services industry are represented across the East and West Midlands.

The National Skills Academy for Financial Services (NSAFS) in the Midlands is represented by its lead training provider Birmingham Metropolitan College. The college was formed on 1 August 2009 when the former lead training provider, Sutton Coldfield College, merged with Matthew Boulton College to become one of the largest further education colleges in the country. Babington Business College also has a base in the region.

Within the Midlands, employers are closely engaged with the activity of the NSAFS through a Regional Employer Board (REB) which includes representatives from:

• Hanley Economic Building Society
• Coventry Building Society
• Royal Bank of Scotland
• Islamic Bank of Britain
• Allied Irish Bank
• NFU Mutual
• Deutsche Bank
• Admin Re
• BHSF
• English Mutual
• PKF

The Board is chaired by Craig Errington, Chief Executive of the Wesleyan Assurance Society. Other partners are also represented on the REB, including:

• the Learning and Skills Council
• Advantage West Midlands
• Locate in Birmingham (the inward investment arm of Birmingham City Council)

The NSAFS is also looking to help increase the financial awareness and understanding of young people throughout the region regardless of the sector they are looking to eventually work in and. To do this, we are working closely with the Financial Services Authority (FSA) to deliver a project to improve the financial capability of young people within further education colleges.

Some of our training providers can deliver in other regions too.