Banker’s Quotient (BQ) Academy is envisioning to train another 5,000 bankers by March 2015. The academy has within six months of its inception trained 1,129 employees.
Emphasising the need for such programmes, M.V. Nair, former Chairman of Union Bank of India and a key promoter of BQ Academy, said: “Çonsidering the large recruitment in banks and onboarding of recruits, it has become inevitable for employers to provide a holistic training experience with delivery methodologies that focus on practical aspects of banking skills. BQ Academy imparts training to both — experienced bankers and new recruits.’’
Over the last three years, banks have recruited over 1.07 lakh employees. The staff requirement by 2020 is estimated at 7 to 10 lakh.
“All these people and the experienced ones, who move up the scale rather rapidly need to be trained to prepare them for their respective roles. Though every bank has its own training facility, training practices need complete re-engineering to effectively address the emerging challenges and opportunities in the banking and financial services arena,’’ he said.
To begin with, the academy started imparting training to employees of three banks. This has in six months strengthened to include eight banks. It would move to include all public sector banks by March 2014, the BQ Academy chief said.
To a query on capacity, he said it is 350 at present, but expandable up to 1,000. The academy is also planning to open another campus in the North by the end of 2015.
To announce this milestone achievement of training 1,000 bankers within six months of inception, the academy organised a function at its campus in RVS Group of Institutions, Sulur.
Presiding over the function, Chairman and Managing Director of Indian Overseas Bank M. Narendra said that the bank was on a recruitment spree.
“We have recruited 4,502 officers, 285 specialists and 500 rural development officers during the current year. Going forward, with rapid expansion of branch network, we will need more people.’’
IOB has plans to open 100 new branches in the State by June and add 500 more branches to its network across the country.