Accreditation expands
Big interest - no easy ride

There are several routes to professional qualification and accreditation is proving to be an increasingly effective and efficient pathway.

There’s a burgeoning demand for Institute accreditation of the in-house training and professional development work being undertaken across the banking sector. More and more institutions – and their external training providers – are looking for the Institute’s “quality hallmark” on the learning programmes they’re delivering.

“It’s a key area of focus,” says Giles Cuthbert, the Institute’s Director of Professional Standards. “Banks are currently undertaking huge programmes of in-house training and learning and, where possible, they’re keen to attach an external quality mark to that. They’re increasingly seeing accreditation initiatives with us as a first step on the route towards professionalism.”

Three things are driving this growth, he explains. First, the Institute itself has been making it much more widely known that there isn’t a purely onedimensional approach to securing its professional qualifications. There are several routes, and accreditation is one increasingly effective and efficient pathway.

Second, accompanying today’s greater post-crisis emphasis on securing professional qualifications, banks “are finding it really useful to turn to the Institute for quality guidance about how professionalism should actually ‘look’ in the training and personal development of their own personnel. After all, we’re not just experts in banking professionalism, we’re also experts in education. We tend to know a lot about what works educationally, and what doesn’t.”

Third, there’s a public dimension. “More banks and their training contractors want to have a demonstrable and convincing badge of professionalism – something they can show their customers. Accreditation secures an objective and informed external view as a measure to assess their training and professional development structures.”

None of this is new, Giles adds, “it’s just that we’re now doing a great deal more of it. People will often ask, for example, if they can put ‘accredited by the Chartered Banker Institute’ on their business cards because it goes down very well with their customers.”

Typically, the Institute will be asked to examine a bank’s training and learning provision – “usually very substantial” – and look to accredit that towards one of its qualifications. “It’s effectively an authentication of the fact that the bank’s procedures meet all our benchmarks. In some cases, we might find that, while the training is fine and capable of being endorsed by us, there may simply not be enough of it to give a credit into a formal qualification. It’s often the volume which determines this.

“A missing component might be rectified by including a particular course, or with on-line learning or the provision of additional materials by us so that the bank can build it into one of our qualifications or a credit towards a qualification.

“Where there’s substantial enough work, we can assign a formal educational credit value towards a particular qualification. Sometimes, the training work of a bank can effectively be mapped directly into the Institute’s own qualifications because it covers the same subject areas. More commonly, where it cannot be mapped across, it may be in relevant subject areas to banking and finance and to a sufficient quantity and quality to allow us to say that this may contribute towards, say, a Professional Banker Diploma or Certificate.

“For us, it’s important that what we’re doing doesn’t conflict with a bank’s internal learning and development. We aim to streamline our approaches so that both flows of work can actually merge together seamlessly.

“At the same time, we obviously have to be very careful that any pressures to adapt are not allowed to risk damaging our own quality standards. If something really doesn’t fit or would dilute our quality, it’s turned down.

“So, our own audit has to be rigorous. We need to satisfy ourselves, for example, about the qualifications and experience of the people who are delivering the training, about how they ensure consistency of delivery and how they’re continuously assessing what’s being learned. It’s a very detailed process to ensure we know exactly what’s being done and how it’s being monitored. This isn’t an easy ride. People still have to do the work.

“Accreditation is one currently dynamic way in which we’re fulfilling our mission. What I like about it is its inclusivity: it’s bringing a far wider population of banking sector personnel into direct contact with their industry’s professional body, including those for whom aspiring to the toplevel Chartered Banker qualification wouldn’t necessarily be an appropriate career choice or educational pathway.

“It’s clear from our consultations with the industry that accreditation is going to play an increasing role in the drive for professionalism. And, as our market research shows, some 88 per cent of customers want bankers to be qualified by taking professional banking exams.”

A benchmark in e-learning

The Institute has worked closely with its e-learning partner, Unicorn Training, to review the materials for accreditation in its Arrears & Possessions e-learning programme developed in conjunction with the Council of Mortgage Lenders. Its aim is to provide a clear benchmark of the programme’s content and delivery standard.

The programme comprises 12 subject modules, including the root causes of arrears, discussing solutions with borrowers, and handling complaints. The learning is highly interactive, bringing to life the case studies to help users learn and to enhance the service they provide to their customers.

Neill McWilliams, Managing Director, Unicorn Training, explains that it’s important for many of its clients that the learning is recognised by its professional body. Completion of the full programme also makes candidates eligible to apply for a documented record of achievement from the Institute.

Validation on the Campus

The Institute accredits the compliance-related modules in the Learning Management System of Clydesdale and Yorkshire banks, known as Learning Campus. This includes Fraud Awareness, Anti-Money Laundering & Countering Terrorist Financing, and Data Quality Awareness. All accredited modules form part of the banks’ business as usual requirements, and are completed by all staff annually.

Kate Lindsay, UK Learning Operations Manager for Clydesdale and Yorkshire banks, says that the objective is to provide external validation of the learning, and – when combined with a bespoke training programme – to allow learners to be awarded the Professional Banker Certificate qualification, demonstrating their understanding of the fundamental principles of banking.

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