By Kate Young
To thrive in the complex world of banking, marketers must understand how banks work and how their products serve customers’ needs. And to compete in a rapidly changing marketplace, banks often need to hire marketers with little bank experience. To bridge that knowledge gap, banking education programs have become an essential part of the onboarding process, serving early-career bankers as well as seasoned professionals who are new to the industry.
Learning has evolved alongside the technology that supports it.
Employees respond best to educational programs that are convenient, efficient, and effective. These people do have day jobs, after all. What does that look like in the digital age? With most web-based programs, students anywhere can now access mind-boggling quantities of information in the blink of an eye. They can regurgitate it almost as easily. But are they really absorbing this information? Assimilating it? Contextualizing it with workplace realities? These are not trivial questions. Attention spans are short. The student has to be more than just a passive receptacle for information.
That’s why the latest generation of online educational programs ties together engaging multi-media resources, peer collaboration, in-depth discussions, and real-world assignments, led by a human instructor, and all conducted online at the student’s convenience.
A better way to learn banking from the people who know it best.
The American Bankers Association has long been the nation’s trusted source of banking education. As such, ABA has developed Banking Fundamentals, an innovative new suite of online courses. Rather than leafing through textbooks or scrolling through long blocks of text, students learn by exploring interactive readings and micro-quizzes with real-time feedback. Even more importantly, they learn by networking and collaborating with expert faculty—and with other students.
These courses are social, mobile, flexible, and condensed. Students can access critical information whenever they want, wherever they are. To address different learning styles, information is presented through a variety of media. Virtual discussions among students and faculty provide real-world context to the lessons. The content is based on ABA’s acclaimed Principles of Banking curriculum. And best of all, it has already been tested and proven to work.
“In today’s banking industry, it’s critical to develop your next generation by providing effective onboarding and ongoing professional development that sets them on the fast-track for success,” said Jim Edrington, executive vice president of ABA’s professional development group. “Banking Fundamentals is tailored to the new generation of bank employees by encouraging learning in concert with social interaction in a mobile, online setting that can lead to heightened engagement and better results.”
Banking Fundamentals features three distinct learning communities that explore the complex principles of today’s banking industry:
- The Banking Industry: An essential introduction to banking that informs, prepares, inspires, and motivates new bankers as they embark on their careers. (4 weeks)
- Bank Lines of Business: A comprehensive review of banking products and services that helps new bankers understand how banks continually innovate to serve customers’ needs. (5 weeks)
- Building Customer Relationships: An overview of methods for building critical relationship management skills that are essential to successful banking careers, including proven strategies for creating and maintaining strong bank customer and partner relationships. (4 weeks)
To register or to learn more about this unique learning experience, visit aba.com/bankfundamentals.
Kate Young is the content editor of ABABankMarketing.com. Email: kyoung@aba.com
