The 144-year-old Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) housed in the Mumbai’s iconic Phiroze Jeejeebhoy Towers is the country’s largest securities market in India with over 6000 listed stocks. A lesser-known fact is its educational subsidiary the BSE Institute Ltd. (est. 1989) has been at the forefront of providing a total of 100-plus offline and online stocks and other finance-related courses.

Ambarish Datta, managing director, and chief executive officer, BSE Institute Ltd. answers a few quick questions.

Tell us about the BSE Institute and the BSEVarsity.com and the courses they offer.

The BSE was best suited to offer a course on the Indian stock markets which we first offered in 1989 catering to those interested in understanding the intricate workings of the Indian bourses. All our courses are regularly updated and revised to include any regulatory and procedural changes in the Indian and global markets making them relevant to the industry’s needs. We currently have modules on data science, Fintech, Blockchain, and other emerging financial technologies.

We established the BSEVarsity.comin 2017 to cater to busy professionals offering programs with the flexibility of learning from home. We have online courses that range from six hours duration to six months. These are real-time courses that allow students to interact directly with the instructors, classmates, ask questions and get immediate feedback. BSE Varsity delivers a holistic classroom experience in the comfort of the learner’s home and has been a success with the number of registrations for such courses rising steadily in each batch.

What financial courses are essential to gain employment in India or abroad?

Most of the programs offered by Indian institutes don’t address the global employment requirements which are dramatically different from the traditional skills taught for banking and finance industry-related jobs. Universities and professional courses have largely focused on developing competency in quantitative and problem-solving skills along with regulatory subjects. However, with changing business dynamics, you need more than just competence in quantitative and problem-solving skills to survive in this hyperactive industry. Finance professionals for the new generation need to be skilled in the basics of coding, cyber, cloud, machine learning, artificial intelligence, and innovation amongst other things. Job roles in the finance domain are no longer backroom tasks and thus curriculums in colleges, universities, vocational training institutes need to change their courses to ensure students master the newer technologies too.

We have multiple courses targeted at students looking forward to working in finance sector including the Basic Course in Stock Markets (BCSM) and the ‘global financial market professional (GFMP) Edge Financial Markets’

How has Fin Tech changed the financial markets’ employment scenario?

In recent years the financial industry has been at the forefront of adopting financial technology or Fintech. Banks and venture capital funds have made sizeable investments in Fintech which reflects their expectations of a substantial change in the industry. This has also had an impact on the kind of skills required for jobs across various levels in the financial markets industry.  To address these needs we have introduced a number of technology-focused courses including a Masters in Financial Technology, GFMP Certified Data Scientist Program, GFMP EDGE FinTech Professional program, and specialized programs in Blockchain development and Full-stack development.

Why does the institute offer courses in data analytics?

Broking firms and traders today use data analytics to get insights into the market trends which help them make informed trading and investment decisions. Keeping this in mind, we have launched specialized programs in data analytics like the Certificate Program on Business Data Analytics and the Business Analytics program in collaboration with IIT Chennai.

Dipta Joshi