Bank builds skill base in securities servicing
Article Type: Notes and news From: Industrial and Commercial Training, Volume 41, Issue 6
An award-winning training program is helping an international financial-services company to serve its clients across Europe from a new base in Manchester, England.
The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation chose Manchester, known in the Industrial Revolution as “Cottonopolis”, as a major European center despite the city having no existing base of securities-servicing experience to tap into.
The company needed 350 people to be recruited and intensively trained over 12 months. It had not undertaken a project on this scale before and needed to plan,design and implement a new training program.
A city-center-based advertising campaign helped the company to recruit the trainees, from a range of backgrounds. Some 35 percent of them were school-leavers and a further 35 percent were graduates.
A 15-day core induction program, with seven learner-development objectives,was developed. A measurement framework was used, incorporating benchmarks,qualifications and client service.
The program was designed to meet compliance and regulatory requirements, to embed the company’s vision and values and to use accredited-learning techniques to maximize retention of learning and pace of progression.
The 350 individuals were trained, with a drop-out average of one every two months. All business needs were met.
Ian Pettigrew, assistant vice-president, European learning and development said:
Following the completion of the core induction program, the company’s expectations of the learners were exceeded. Manchester was one of the few green-field sites where we have built a major operation from the ground up… We overcame huge challenges to design and implement an efficient training system that successfully upskilled 350 people to a very high standard.
The progam has also provided Manchester with a significant boost to its financial-services industry, adding a considerable base of new skills and creating bedrock for sustainable growth.
We have developed a pioneering qualification, the Advanced Apprenticeship in Investment Administration, which is helping to lay the base for a long-term securities-servicing skill base in Manchester. It is designed to attract young people to a career in financial services and to ensure that they develop the skills and practical experience required to progress. It will also help the company to recruit from a growing pool of partially skilled young people as it continues to expand in Manchester.
