Singapore, 25 November 2015 (Wednesday) - Financial IT Academy @SMU (FITA) celebrated the graduation of its pioneer cohort of 16 participants from the Professional Certificate in Technology and Operations programmes today.

These three Level 1 programmes, covering retail banking, commercial banking and asset management respectively, are accredited under the Institute of Banking and Finance Singapore (IBF) Standards for Technology and Operations, and were launched on 13 June 2015.

FITA is the first institution in Singapore to have its financial sector IT programmes accredited under the IBF Standards.

Participants who completed the programmes are conferred the IBF Qualified (IBFQ) certification status and are entitled to use the qualification title “IBFQ”.

These programmes are specially designed for new hires and professionals with up to three years of experience performing technology job functions in the financial services industry, and for aspiring polytechnic/ university graduates and IT professionals looking to enter the financial services industry. The programmes seek to equip participants with holistic knowledge of essential enterprise-wide skills and broad-based technology competencies.

The graduates, who come from more than four organisations, received their graduation certificates from Paul Cobban, an IBF Fellow at the graduation ceremony organized by IBF today before an audience of more than 150 financial practitioners. 

Ms Amelia Ching, Academic Director of FITA, said “I am very proud of our pioneer batch of programme graduates who have successfully gained the certification.  This is a unique programme that brings together Financial Service Technology and Operations that leverages on the expertise of more than eight trainers who are industry practitioners to deliver over 15 days.  We have received positive feedback from those who have completed the programme that they benefited from the invaluable industry-relevant insights, and from learning how the various functions and roles within the financial institutions interacted with each other and with the enabling technology. I wish the graduates well in their career endeavours and hope that they will continue to build on their competencies to be skill-ready for our evolving economy.”

Launched in October 2013, FITA is integral to Singapore’s national effort of expanding both the quality and size of the local IT professional workforce in the financial services industry, so as to strengthen Singapore’s position as a premier financial centre. It is the first-of-its-kind academy in Singapore to provide training programmes targeted at the financial services IT segment.

Over the last two years, FITA has grown its course offerings to 18, including those that are accredited under the IBF Standards or aligned to the IDA’s National Infocomm Competency Framework.  There are programmes that cater to the entrants and fresh graduates as well as mid and advanced level courses that cater to the more experienced professionals.  To-date, the academy has trained more than 540 participants, of which 80% are professionals from financial institutions.

Looking ahead, FITA plans to grow its course offerings to 28 and more in 2016. These include IBF-accredited programmes (i.e. IBF Level 2 and 3), particularly a suite of courses on IT Risk Management and Security, as this is an area that the industry faces a shortage of skilled IT security professionals. The academy also plans to start a programme on IT Operations & Service Management, which will cover IT Operations Management, IT Application, and Infrastructure Support and Monitoring modules. 

With the rising interest in Financial Technology (Fintech), FITA is actively collaborating with the industry players to bring awareness about Fintech and the Fintech offerings. Recently, FITA ran an exclusive Fintech session for a leading Multinational Bank covering topics such as Blockchains, rise of Fintech and innovation. FITA is also looking at running a series of workshops to bring the industry awareness and developments in this space which may help them compete in the rapidly growing Fintech arena.

SkillsFuture Credit will be applicable for most FITA courses, in addition to the funding by IBF or IDA.

To find out more about FITA, please visit: http://fita.smu.edu.sg/

For more information, please contact:

Teo Chang Ching (Mr)

Assistant Director, Corporate Communications

Office of Corporate Communications & Marketing

DID: 6828 0451

Email: ccteo [at] smu.edu.sg