Fintech sits where financial services meets fast-moving technology, and that overlap is where the skills question gets sharpest. The signals are clear if you read the labour market data. Apprenticeships have risen from 3% of AI hires in 2020 to 19% in 2025, according to the GOV.UK AI Labour Market Survey 2025. That is a sixfold jump in five years, and it tells you employers are building talent through routes that prize demonstrable skill over a traditional degree pathway.
The national picture reinforces it. During London Tech Week 2025, the UK government announced a partnership to upskill 7.5 million UK workers in essential AI skills by 2030, equivalent to around 20% of the UK workforce, as reported by techUK. When one in five workers is in line for new AI skills, the way fintech firms screen and hire has to follow. Skills become the currency, not the credential.
Fintech hiring clusters at the senior and specialist end. In the financial services sector, recruitment was generally for Regulatory Qualification Framework (RQF) 6+ roles, rather than RQF 3 to 5, according to the GOV.UK Temporary Shortage List Stage 2 report. In plain terms, firms are chasing degree-equivalent and above capability: engineers, risk and compliance specialists, data roles and the people who can bridge regulation and code.
But demand at that level does not mean the pipeline has to be traditional. The rise in apprenticeship hiring shows employers are growing senior-ready skills from the ground up rather than waiting for a perfect CV. The dynamic is a squeeze at the top and a widening of the routes into it. That combination is exactly what pushes a sector towards skills-first hiring: when the roles are demanding and the talent is scarce, you assess what someone can do today.
Start by writing the role around capabilities, not a wish list of qualifications. Name the three or four things the person must be able to do early on, then build your assessment around those. A short, realistic task beats a long list of must-have degrees, and it widens your pool to people who can prove the work.
Take upskilling seriously as a hiring strategy, not an afterthought. The Make UK Executive Survey 2026 found that 40% of manufacturers are looking to upskill their existing workforce for redeployment as a result of automation and digitalisation, a figure that increases for larger firms. Fintech leaders can borrow the logic: hire for aptitude and trajectory, then build the specialist skills in-house. It opens the door to apprenticeships and career-changers who learn fast.
Skills-first hiring works best when you can reach beyond the obvious shortlist and match people on what they can do. That is where we help. We search a database of 15 million candidates and match on capability, so you see people you might otherwise miss, including those from apprenticeship and non-linear routes. Our recruitment agent manages recruitment end to end for 8% on a successful hire, with no monthly fee and no upfront cost. Ready to hire for skills in fintech? Start a role with Reed.ai today.
