Emirates Institute for Banking and Financial Studies (EIBFS), a regional leader in banking and finance education and training, has once again reported a record training year, for the first eight months ended August 30, 2016.
The institute delivered a total of 833 vocational training and education programmes and activities during 2016 so far – the highest recorded to date. EIBFS also welcomed a total of 20,850 participants for the 8 months ended August 30, 2016, registering an increase of 26 per cent from the start of the year. Aligned with the UAE government’s objective to boost the professional capacities of Emirati citizens, EIBFS also received 5,366 UAE national participants for the 8 months ended August 30, 2016.
Speaking on the strong performance, Jamal Al Jasmi, General Manager, EIBFS, said: “Through these progressive results, EIBFS once again reaffirms its commitment towards supporting the UAE’s significantly important banking and financial services sector. We are pleased to have welcomed several new students and trainees to our programmes this year. The increased growth in participants across our programmes reinforces our position as a leading institution in the region, that effectively prepares banking and finance professionals with the necessary tools to succeed in the sector. We have also been mandated in supporting the Government’s nationalisation efforts and are pleased to be a key supporter of Emirati talent in the region, which are attested by these numbers.”
He added: “Our desire remains to establish industry benchmarks and develop initiatives in line with market demands. Given the rapid pace of automation on front end banking across the globe, backed by financial technology, it’s imperative that the skill sets of employees, especially UAE nationals, are elevated so that they can work in more critical areas in the future. We will continue to collaborate with our valued stakeholders to ensure we can deliver specialised knowledge, which will keep our students and trainees at the forefront of their careers.”
EIBFS is expected to deliver 570 Annual Training Plan (ATP) programmes by 2017. It has increased the number of training programs compared to 2016 by 4 per cent.
Committed to offering best-in-class services and integrating technology into its programmes, EIBFS also offers an e-learning system that provides over 101 online banking and finance courses in corporation with Intuition. These cover important subjects such as ‘Banking Science & Operations’, ‘Credit Management’, ‘AML & Compliance’, ‘Treasury & Investment’, ‘Marketing & Customer Service’, ‘HR Management’, ‘Islamic Banking’, ‘E-Banking Applications and Risk Management’.
The Institute also introduced new courses in line with industry demands, which cover, accounting, and advanced courses on card operations, corporate restructuring, stress testing and modelling, corporate governance and compliance & risk management for board of directors.
As part of its aims to develop Emirati talent and develop them for leadership positions with the banking sector, EIBFS also delivered a host of Leadership Development Programs for nominated UAE nationals from regional banks. The programs were completed in partnership with key stakeholders such as Insead, Darden School of Business and Harvard Business School. The Institute also hosted a series of workshops and seminars during the year, for various senior-level attendees from the UAE’s banking sector.