New training in sustainable finance is due diligence

In the coming months, 25 business consultants from a number of financial institutions will participate in a pilot project where they will be trained in advising companies on sustainable transformation.

Finansforbundet is the initiator of the project, which has been developed in collaboration with Finanssektorens Uddannelsescenter and Finanssektorens Arbejdsgiverforening and is backed by the industry organisations Finans Danmark and Lokale Pengeinstitutter (the Association of Local Banks, Savings Banks and Co-operative Banks in Denmark).

‘It is due diligence to shed light on the need for competencies in sustainable finance. We are facing a major change in a sustainable direction in the business community in the coming years, and the financial sector will play a key role in this. Therefore, business consultants’ professionalism within sustainability must be developed so that they are ready to advise business customers’, says Kent Petersen, Chair of Finansforbundet.

New business area in the long run

The parties behind the project believe that it is particularly small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that may have a special need for help from their personal business consultants to make sustainable transition a more concrete and manageable discipline in daily life. If the training course for business consultants is a success, Kent Petersen can well imagine that other consultants in the financial institutions will also be offered continuing education in sustainability.

‘We firmly believe that competencies within sustainable finance and consulting will be in high demand in the future and that employees are the crucial players in terms of driving the financial companies’ contributions forward’, says Kent Petersen, referencing that sustainable consulting can become a new business area for the sector.

Since Finansforbundet issued a press release about the project last week, it has received many positive reactions on social media.

‘We are showing with this project that the sector wants to contribute to the sustainable transformation of society, which is an important message to get out’, says the Chair of Finansforbundet.

The pilot project runs from May to September. The business consultants get practice and case-oriented training organised by Finanssektorens Uddannelsescenter, so that it is relevant in terms of the business consultant’s advisory situations with customers.