The FINANCIAL — 120 people from various commercial banks in Georgia have already taken part in trainings by The Georgian Banking Training Centre (GBTC) in cooperation with the Hellenic Bank Association GBTC training. The trainings offer dynamic, innovative and flexible programs.
“The mission of GBTC is to address the needs of the Georgian banking sector and provide state-of-art training programs for professional bankers that meet international standards and certification requirements,” Levan Gogoladze, Director of the Georgian Banking Training Centre, Caucasus University (CU), told The FINANCIAL.
The training fee varies from GEL 100 to USD 800 depending on the theme, duration and intensiveness of the course.
The Georgian Banking Training Centre (GBTC) was established by the Association of Banks of Georgia (ABG) and Caucasus University (CU).
CU was established in 2004. It’s a new institution founded on the basis of Caucasus School of Business which was established during the transitional period of the country in 1998 when Georgia was making the first attempts to move from a planned to free market economy.
The Association of Banks of Georgia (ABG) was established in 1994 by the leading commercial banks of Georgia. The members of ABG are 18 commercial banks. ABG’s mission is to advocate for the banking sector’s needs, improve the qualifications of banks’ employees, organize training courses and provide certification, offer technical assistance and expertise, and promote cooperation with international banks.
The Hellenic Bank Association (HBA) is a non-profit legal entity representing Greek and foreign credit institutions operating in Greece. In its role, it fosters relations with other financial-sector associations in Greece and abroad, encourages the establishment of inter-bank bodies or other legal entities that aim at the promotion of the Greek banking system and through its training centre; HBA provides active courses for its member banks and their clients in the development of training.
At the launch of GBTC, financial assistant of USAID, SME Support Project issued the grant which was the initial and most vital point in the development of this program.
The SME Support Project is an IESC implemented four-year USAID program that supports the growth and development of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Georgia.
According to Gogoladze the GBTC innovative programs’ excellent teaching, research and service, as well as a strong business network make GBTC unique. Although GBTC initially was designed primarily for commercial banks, it will later be open to all financial companies; including but not limited to Micro Finance Institutions (MFIs), NBG, insurance companies, leasing companies, pension funds, the securities industry, and individuals that are seeking a career in finance.
The program also offers a good opportunity for trainees to switch to degree (BBA or MBA) programs of Caucasus University and several credit hours taken as a part of the GBTC training program can be transferred and counted towards completion of either BBA or MBA programs.
The duration of the training depends on the training subject. The courses last from 20 academic hours to 90 academic hours. Some of them are very intensive, while others stretch over three months. The duration of each class is 3 hours and the time is fixed for all courses.
They have three different cases of payment: when the studying fee for an employee is fully covered by the bank, when the fee is partially covered by the bank and the rest is paid by the employee and when the individual covers the whole charge.
GBTC provides Georgian banking sector professionals with a common toolset for effectively applying knowledge to their workplaces.
A participant of GBTC can be: new bank employees, experienced employees wishing to acquire comprehensive knowledge of the bank and its environment, employees and executives from the broader financial sector (insurance companies, investment firms, and leasing companies), business executives wishing to obtain a full understanding of the financial system’s operations, anyone interested in pursuing a banking career.
“The training centre has an advisory board in which the HR managers of our partner banks are included. GBTC makes announcements about new trainings and the banks then send a list of employees willing to participate. But apart from this, every person wanting to attend the training (despite their work place) is welcome here,” said Gogoladze.
The mission of GBTC is to provide financial services to the professionals with continuous and effective education and training. GBTC will promote the highest standards of performance in the financial services industry by validating individuals’ knowledge and expertise to foster their self-confidence and personal growth.
Also, to develop a strategy that will allow the creation of a sustainable financial training centre devoted to increasing the knowledge of the financial sector in Georgia that will support the development of modern and efficient financial institutions (FIs) and allow them to compete in the international market place.
“The trainings are held by Georgian banking sector professionals with academic backgrounds, who have an everyday touch with the subjects they teach and are aware of them in practice. In certain cases foreign instructors are also invited,” said Gogoladze.
Expected benefits from GBTC are: Comprehension of fundamental concepts in economics (microeconomics and macroeconomics), Familiarization with the institutional framework that governs the provision of banking services.
As well as comprehension of fundamental financial analysis and monetary theory concepts, Comprehension of the fundamental procedures and concepts encountered in banking practice, emphasizing on clients and financial products, Knowledge of fundamental concepts related to ethics, bank marketing and management, Sound preparation for the fast and effective assimilation of new employees by banking institutions.
“We have a certain plan for every course and the topics for discussion are already scheduled. We generally follow the instructions of the Hellenic Banking Institute in the educational sphere,” Director of the Georgian Banking Training Centre, CU, told The FINANCIAL.
GBTC offers a special preparation course for EFCB certification exams. This qualification is already being offered in many other European countries and is based on European standards. The purpose is to provide the personnel, executives and prospective employees of the broader financial sector with the requisite financial theory and banking practice knowledge, which is necessary for the efficient fulfilment of their tasks in today’s highly challenging environment.
The program presents an ideal basis on which trainees can subsequently build expertise on specific services and products of the financial sector by means of further training courses (levels II and III).
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