Stockport’s finance and professional services community invited to discuss the future of the sector’s workforce

Finance and Professional Services sector businesses from across Stockport and Greater Manchester are invited to a morning of networking and interactive discussion as the GM Finance and Professional Services Network returns.

The GM Finance and Professional Services Network will meet to discuss Closing the FPS Skills Gap: How Greater Manchester Builds a Future-fit Finance & Professional Services Workforce. Taking place on 4th March from 8.30am, the event is delivered by GM Business Growth Hub in partnership with Stockport Council, Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce, and HURST Accountants, who are hosting the event at their offices at 3 Stockport Exchange.

Stockport’s Finance and Professional Services network previously met quarterly at the Deanwater Hotel, Woodford before the hotel and land was sold for redevelopment. It is being revived to bring together business leaders, people professionals and sector stakeholders from Stockport, as well as including the wider Greater Manchester FPS community and is designed to support ongoing dialogue, collaboration and action across the city-region.

Financial and Professional Services (FPS) organisations across Greater Manchester are navigating rapid and sustained change. Advances in AI, shifting client expectations, regulatory pressures and persistent skills shortages are reshaping roles, leadership expectations and ways of working across the sector.

This interactive breakfast event brings together business leaders, people professionals and sector stakeholders from Stockport and the wider Greater Manchester FPS community to explore what a future-fit workforce looks like in practice – and, crucially, how organisations can take realistic, practical steps to close these skills gaps.

The session is designed to be highly participatory, combining short speaker inputs, a panel discussion, and facilitated round-table conversations. Insights and perspectives shared during the session will help inform the development of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority Finance & Professional Services Sector Development Plan, ensuring that regional priorities are grounded in real business experience. Networking is a core part of the event, creating space for meaningful peer connections, shared learning, and follow-up conversations.

Featuring expert perspectives, real-world examples and peer discussion, the focus is on practical insight and actions that can be applied across organisations of different sizes and levels of workforce maturity. Attendees will leave with a clearer view of emerging skills and leadership needs, and a stronger understanding of how to build capability, resilience and long-term competitiveness in a changing FPS landscape. And hopefully many new excellent connections and potential partners too.

For more details about the new GM Finance and Professional Services Network and to book a place at its first meeting in Stockport on 4th March, visit the GM Business Growth Hub website.