A Needs Analysis for Embedding Sustainable Finance Competences into Vocational Business Education in the Baltic Region

Aim. The aim of this article was to analyse relevant literature as well as finan cial services sector professionals’ expectations on future sustainability compe tence needs among vocational business graduates as part of an ideation process to design an open online course within the project “Sustainability in Finance – SuFi” (2020-2022). Methods. The online mixed-method survey was elaborated using Google Forms and Webropol and distributed via email among finance services industry pro 186 fessionals in Finland, Latvia, Estonia, and Aland Islands. In total, 221 responses were obtained. The qualitative and quantitative data analysis was performed using NVivo and SPSS. Results. Qualitative data analysis revealed that the conceptual knowledge of business graduates was the most frequently mentioned category, followed by pro cedural knowledge. Among the key competencies in sustainability, the most neces sary was intra-personal competence, followed by inter-personal competence. Quan titative data analysis revealed that the top three sustainable finance competencies in demand within respondents’ organisations were: to understand relevant driving sustainable forces, to think and operate with a long-term perspective, and to com municate sustainable financial information in a meaningful way. Conclusion. In the Baltic Region’s finance sector, there is a need for a more holi stic view for understanding the market as part of society as a whole and also the meaning of understanding long-term horizons. The competencies that financial services sector professionals found important for vocational business graduates in future work were used as an input for elaborating vocational business education study courses.


Introduction
I n 2015, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, a new global framework to redirect humanity towards a sustainable path (United Nations, 2015). At the core of the 2030 Agenda are universal, transformational, and inclusive 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which describe the major complex challenges humanity has to face. To create a more sustainable world as described in the SDGs, individuals need a capacity that empowers them to contribute to sustainable development (e.g., to make informed decisions and act responsibly). Education for sustainable development can develop key competences for sustainability that are relevant to all SDGs (UNESCO, 2017).
Nowadays, humanity is facing many economic, social, and environmental issues, where the last ones are the most challenging. The European Green Deal is a response to climate and environment-related challenges which require transforming the European Union's (EU) economy for a sustainable future (European Commission, 2019, 2022). According to Flash Eurobarometer 478 results, young people aged 15-30 believe that fighting climate change and protecting the environment should be a priority for the EU in the years to come (European Union, 2019). Currently in the EU, developing a European sustainability competence framework (GreenComp) is an important policy action to facilitate education and training on environmental sustainability for the green transition in any learning context, comprising four interconnected aspects such as sustainability values, complexity in sustainability, sustainable futures, and acting for sustainability (Bianchi et al., 2022). GreenComp is based on the method developed and used by the Joint Research Centre, the European Commission's science and knowledge service, to elaborate the Digital competence framework for citizens (DigComp), the Entrepreneurship competence framework (EntreComp), and the European framework for personal, social, and learning to learn key competence (LifeComp).
The common priorities of the European vocational education and training (VET) system have been highlighted in the European policy documents and have been linked to the European Commission's strategy to transform human capital skills depending on the demands of the labour market, with a special emphasis on green and digital skills. VET for sustainable competitiveness, social fairness, and resilience has been defined recently as an enabler of recovery and just transitions to digital and green economies (Cedefop, 2021; European Commission, 2019, 2020a, 2020b; The Council of the European Union, 2020). During the last decade, the changing nature and role of VET in Europe have been investigated deeply, comprehensively, and thoroughly (Cedefop, 2017a(Cedefop, , 2017b(Cedefop, , 2017c(Cedefop, , 2018a(Cedefop, , 2018b(Cedefop, , 2018c(Cedefop, , 2019a(Cedefop, , 2019b. In light of the green and digital transitions, there is an urgent need to significantly expand and enhance the offer of VET for both young people and adults, while also increasing the attractiveness and quality of initial VET (The Council of the European Union, 2020). Sustainability issues should be advanced in VET (especially in vocational business and management education), and not only from an ecological perspective, but also from an ethical point of view (Eizaguirre et  The project "Sustainability in Finance -SuFi" (2020-2022) (hereinafter: the SuFi project) aimed at accelerating and aligning vocational business education with the SDGs, sustainability principles, and new sustainability competence needs, focusing on quality and alignment in sustainable finance.
The goal of this article was to analyse scientific and grey literature as well as financial services sector professionals' expectations on future sustainability competence needs among vocational business graduates as part of an ideation process to design an open online module "Sustainability in finance" within the SuFi project.

Sustainable development versus sustainability
While policy-makers and academics agree on the necessity to embed sustainability concepts and competences in education, there is no common system of using terminology, for instance, in spite of a conceptual difference between "sustainable development" and "sustainability", these notions are often used as synonyms interchangeably: sustainability could be described as a long-term goal prioritising the needs of all life forms by ensuring that human activity does not exceed planetary boundaries, while sustainable development refers to the many pathways to achieve development (progress or growth) in sustainable ways (Bianchi, 2020;Bianchi et al., 2022). Therefore, it can be argued that education for sustainable development (Kioupi & Voulvoulis, 2019;Laurie et al., 2016;UNESCO, 2017; United Nations, 2012; Tilbury, 2011) emphasises the idea that education is a process to equip learners with the necessary set of attitudes, values, knowledge, and skills throughout their lives to enact a sustainable development, but sustainability education (Bianchi, 2020;Bianchi et al., 2022) is more integrative and inclusive, whereby sustainability is integrated with education in all spheres and aims to change the behaviour of individuals to live in harmony with their society and environment.

Towards sustainability as a competence
There were many efforts to define competences for sustainable development (Lambrechts et al., 2013), key competences for sustainability (UNESCO, 2017) (Bianchi, 2020;Bianchi et al., 2022), and an elaborate competence framework for advancing transformations towards sustainability (Bianchi et al., 2022;Redman & Wiek, 2021). The European sustainability competence framework (GreenComp) is created to be a reference for learning schemes fostering sustainability as a competence made of 12 interconnected building blocks organised into the four areas: • comprising complexity in sustainability (e.g., critical thinking, systems thinking, and problem framing); • embodying sustainability values (e.g., fairness and nature); • conceiving sustainable futures (e.g., adaptability, exploratory thinking, and futures literacy); • acting for sustainability (e.g., individual initiative, collective action, and political agency) (Bianchi et al., 2022).
In the GreenComp framework, sustainability is defined as a competence which empowers to embody sustainability values and embrace complex systems in order to act responsibly maintaining ecosystem health, enhancing justice, and generating visions for sustainable futures with a special emphasis on "developing sustainability knowledge, skills, and attitudes for learners so they can think, plan, and act with sustainability in mind, to live in tune with the planet" (Bianchi et al., 2022, p. 12). Many scholars focused their attention on context-or discipline-dependent sustainability issues and competences in higher education, e.g., in business and management studies ( , and bringing an entrepreneurial focus to sustainability education towards achieving an entrepreneurial-oriented sustainability education (Hermann & Bossle, 2020). In the EntreComp conceptual framework, ethical and sustainable thinking is one of the 15 interrelated and interconnected building blocks of entrepreneurship as a competence (Bacigalupo et al., 2016).

Financial literacy as a path to sustainability
The sustainable finance landscape is featured by heterogeneous concepts, definitions, and standards as proposed by the European Commission (n.d.), Deloitte (2019, 2021), Marco Migliorelli (2021), and Dirk Schoenmaker (2020). Based on the EU policy, sustainability finance is the money to support economic development while decreasing environmental pressures and considering the social and governance facets (European Commission, n.d). Similarly, according to Deloitte (2019), sustainable finance is an all-encompassing term that does not create any difference between ESG investing, justifiable investing and responsible investing and refers to any method of monetary service that integrates ESG standards into business or investor choices for the improved advantages of investors and society in general. Another research conducted by Schoenmaker (2020) stated that sustainable finance denotes the distribution of investment and loan offerings to sustainable administrative institutions, companies and projects and hastening the changes to a low--carbon, circular, and wide-ranging economy. Also, Migliorelli (2020) defined sustainable finance as the money to support areas or events that help in the attainment of or the enhancement of more than one of the appropriate sustainability scopes and; therefore, sustainable finance could also be used as a synonym of finance for sustainability. Sustainable behaviour of people is crucial in finance for sustainability; consequently, this has made financial literacy as a route to sustainability to obtain high substantial research topic in link with the necessity to enhance monetary knowledge and the abilities of people to make evidence-based financial decisions and act responsibly ( . Sustainable financial literacy (or financial literacy for sustainability) can contribute to global economic growth, sustainable development, and sustainability, taking into account environmental, social, and governance considerations when making financial decisions, not only for business but also for personal finance in order to achieve a financially balanced, sustainable, ethical, and responsible lifestyle (OECD-GFLEC, 2018; Praveena & Rachel, 2018).

Sustainable finance skills and learning needs in demand within finance industry
Nowadays the development of finance sustainability competences (A4S CFO Leadership Network, 2018), sustainable finance skills and talent (Delo- 11. Sustainability risk management.
The most important learning needs in demand within financial services industry organisations Integrating the specific ESGs issues into financial products and services.
Developing a strategic approach to sustainability for the institution (for instance, integrating sustainability into values, strategies, products, services, etc.).
Integrating ESGs / sustainability into product innovation and development.
Integrating sustainability into the institution's client / investment value proposition and guide clients / investees towards more sustainable business models and practices.
Note: This table was created by the authors based on several sources.
Source: Deloitte (2019, 2021) and Tan (2022). itte, 2019, 2021), as well as the skills and competences required for a career in sustainable finance (Tan, 2022) have become crucial for the financial services industry (e.g., fund services, banking, insurance, asset management, etc.). According to the results obtained within the research conducted by Deloitte (2019Deloitte ( , 2021, the majority of financial services industry professionals believe that there is demand for sustainable finance skills within their enterprises and institutions; furthermore, the supply is not adequate and further upskilling is required; they expect more in terms of sustainable finance skills from post-secondary graduates than they did three or more years ago (Deloitte, 2019(Deloitte, , 2021. Taking into account that the sustainable finance scene is quickly changing the planning because it is not focusing on creating a whole new skill set. Still, it is concerned with blending the available money abilities with risk, data management, and ESG skills to react to the complexity and interconnection of the challenges (Deloitte, 2021). Therefore, "sustainability must be integrated into the curricula of schools, universities and all professional financial qualifications" (Deloitte, 2019, p. 10), and the integration of sustainability issues in finance/business education programmes will accelerate sustainable finance skills acquisition (Deloitte, 2021). The most important sustainable finance skills and learning needs identified in Ireland (Deloitte, 2019), Canada (Deloitte, 2021), and Singapore (Tan, 2022) are summarised in Table 1.

Research aim
The aim of the online mixed-method survey was to find out the financial services sector professionals' expectations on future sustainability competence needs among vocational business graduates, particularly within business education in finance.

Research questions
The research question of the empirical study conducted within the SuFi project was as follows: Which competences are important for vocational business graduates in future work? And more specifically, which sustainability competences in finance education are important for employers? This question was structured into two sub-questions, the first one addressing the qualitative comments and the second one the quantitative assessment: Research sub-question 1 (RSQ1): Which were the most important future competences and training opportunities for employees within the area of sustainability in finance according to the financial services sector professionals?
Research sub-question 2 (RSQ2): How have finance services industry professionals rated the importance of the sustainability competences in finance education for their business/their employees? Were there any sta-tistically significant differences between respondent groups depending on respondents' demographic profile (age, gender, education level, and working experience in the field)?
Data collection procedure and sampling During October -December 2020, the online mixed-method survey (containing a five-point Likert scale ranking, closed-ended and open--ended questions) was elaborated in English, Finnish, Swedish, Estonian, and Latvian using Google Forms and distributed via email to the financial services sector professionals from the countries mentioned above. In January 2021, the survey was moved to Webropol due to indications that Google Forms were not approved by all organisations and sent out again to the potential respondents. At the beginning of March 2021, 221 respondents were reached ( Table 2). Regarding the demographics of the sample (Table 2), 50.7% of survey participants were male and 47.1% were female, 29.9% were 31-40 years old and 27.6% were more than 50 years old, 51.6% were with a Master's degree, and 43.9% with working experience in the field more than 15 years. All the four SuFi project partners' countries were represented in the research as follows: 73.3% from Finland, 19.5% from Latvia, 5.9% from Estonia, and 1.4% from the Aland Islands.

Data processing and analysis methods
The qualitative data (RSQ1) were processed and analysed using NVivo software, applying content analysis with coding for investigating the respondents' replies to the open-ended questions (e.g., Which sustainable finance competencies should a business graduate have to be employed in your organisation/enterprise? What are the most important future competences in the financial sector? How do you today educate and train your employees within the area of sustainable finance? Your advice to a student that is a potential employee… Something you would like to add…). A combination of deductive and inductive approaches to coding (Linneberg & Korsgaard, 2019) was used.
The quantitative data (RSQ2) analysis was performed using SPSS software. Reliability analysis (Cronbach's Alpha) was carried out to assess the internal consistency of the research instrument (a five-point Likert scale, 14 items, α = .913) and for each category used within the instrument: knowledge-based competencies (7 items, α = .851), skills-based competencies (4 items, α = .782), and behaviour-based competencies (3 items, α = .768). Cronbach's Alpha results indicated good and acceptable internal consistency for each category and excellent internal consistency for the research instrument as a whole. Frequencies, measures of central tendency, and measures of variability were employed using Descriptive Statistics to outline the general features of a data set. The distribution of data was checked for normality using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov Test. For the comparison respondents' rating of the importance of the sustainable finance competencies depending on their demographic profile, the two non-parametric tests (i.e., Mann--Whitney U Test for the comparison by gender and Kruskal-Wallis H Test for the comparison by age, education level, and working experience) were employed. The U-value, H-value, and p-value were used to specify statistically significant differences between respondent groups, then a measure of effect size was calculated and interpreted (Cohen, 1992; Lenhard & Lenhard, 2016) for statistically significant differences determined.

Results
Qualitative data (i.e., the financial services sector professionals' replies to the open-ended questions within the online survey, in total contained 6 149 words) were coded based on the revised version of Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives (Anderson et al., 2001;Krathwohl, 2002) and the unified framework of competences for advancing sustainability transformations (Redman & Wiek, 2021) as well as applying the additional codes (marked in italics in Table 3) generated while examining the col- Table 3 The

Results of Qualitative Data Coding and Analysis of Respondents' Replies Regarding the Necessary Sustainable Finance Competences Depending on Respondents' Gender
Thematic categories and codes 33 An ability to analyse financial indicators. Developing sustainable finance products.   Think with your mind, not with the formulas given outside. Be able to manage yourself, the work is independent and requires systematic and purposeful action from the employee.    lected data. The results of qualitative data coding and analysis (Table 3) revealed that the conceptual knowledge (i.e., knowledge of classifications, principles, models, etc.) was the most frequently mentioned category of the knowledge dimension, followed by procedural knowledge (i.e., knowledge of subject-specific algorithms, techniques, methods, etc.). Within the main cognitive process dimension categories, the most important was understanding (n = 81) followed by analysing (n = 33). Among the key competencies in sustainability, the most necessary was intra-personal competence (n = 164), followed by inter-personal competence (n = 73). Curiosity, open--mindedness (n = 57), followed by responsibility (n = 38) and flexibility (n = 30) were the most crucial components of intra-personal competence. Among general competences, learning, e.g., lifelong, life-wide, workplace, etc. (n = 89), was the most required, followed by digital proficiency (n = 29). Disciplinary competencies (context-or discipline-dependent) were mentioned 78 times. The respondents were also asked to evaluate the importance of the fourteen sustainable finance competencies for their business and their employees using a five-point Likert scale from 1 − not important to 5 − very important. The results have been sorted by mean in descending order ( Table 4).
The top three sustainable finance competences in demand within respondents' organisations were knowledge-based competence "to understand relevant driving sustainable forces affecting the investment market and the society as a whole" (M = 4.44, SD = .702), behaviour-based competence "to think and operate with a long-term perspective, focusing on long-term value drivers as relevant for a long-term time horizon" (M = 4.41, SD = .802), and skills-based competence "to communicate sustainable financial information in a meaningful and understandable way" (M = 4.33, SD = .801).
According to the Mann-Whitney U Test results provided in Table 5, it can be concluded that females have rated the ability to communicate sustainable financial information in a meaningful and understandable way statistically significantly higher (with a small effect) than males (U = 6661.500, p = .044, d Cohen = .25). The other research items (i.e., sustainable finance competences) did not show a gender difference (p > 0.10). The Kruskal-Wallis H test (Table 6) showed that there was a statistically significant difference with a small effect in assessment of the knowledge about global warming, environmental and social issues, and the consequences depending on respondent's education level (H(4) = 11.174, p = .025, d Cohen = .371): the respondents with a Master's degree have rated the knowledge statistically significantly higher than the respondents with a Doctorate. Also, there was a statistically significant difference with an intermediate effect in the assessment of understanding of relevant driving sustainable forces affecting the investment market and the society as a whole depending on the respondent's education level (H(4) = 20.280, p < .001, d Cohen = .571): the respondents with a Master's degree have rated the understanding statistically significantly higher than the respondents with a Doctorate and vocational school graduates. There were no statistically significant differences between respondents' assessment of the importance of the sustainable finance competencies depending on respondents' age and working experience in the field.

Discussion and conclusion
When comparing the current research results to the most important sustainable finance skills in the finance sector identified by Deloitte (2019Deloitte ( , 2021 and Lester Tan (2022), it seems that there is a need for a more holistic view for understanding the market as part of the society as a whole and also the meaning of understanding long-term horizons. Also, according to Deloitte (2019Deloitte ( , 2021 and Tan (2022), a special emphasis was on competences such as technical knowledge and qualitative and quantitative scenario analysis. On the other hand, the current research results highlighted the importance of communicating sustainable financial information in a meaningful and understandable way. Nevertheless, taking environmental, social, and governance issues into consideration was parallel when comparing with previous research. Being aware of global warming, environmental and social issues, and the organisation's value-creating was rated at least important by the majority of respondents.
This research was conducted by analysing the empirical data gathered in the Baltic Region. The competences that financial services sector professionals found important for vocational business graduates in future work were used as an input for elaborating business education study courses for VET. These courses have been piloted in the Baltic Region under several VET institutions. The learners will be educated to explain and analyse current drifts in sustainability and finance, recognise various sustainable asset divisions and tools as well as compare diverse forms of sustainable finance products. Moreover, the courses' learning goals will include disapprovingly assessing sustainability dangers and opportunities and establishing profound reasoning in the sector of sustainability investment procedures. Learners will identify and discuss conditions for countries to benefit from growing sustainable investment opportunities, explain the process of creating functional, sustainable asset allocation, and use sustainable finance representations and approaches to an actual case study.
Sustainability competences are by far the most essential generic competencies for employees in the future, which calls for the necessity to implement the content into VET degree and diploma programs. A transition into a green economy is a significant facilitator on providing courses such as circular economy, sustainable finance, and responsible business to VET learners. Many customers, workers, societies, and national states expect organisations to have a substantial duty in decarbonising the global economy. However, the climate hazards are regarded as a critical investment menace. That will also dramatically change the knowledge base needed in the future. Every VET institution should implement these competencies into the educational curriculum and educate the students that will be the flagship of this social transformation in the future. Each organisation will be changed to a net zero emission ecosphere. Therefore, the VET providers are asked if we will take control or be controlled.