KUWAIT: In-line with NBK's ongoing initiatives towards instilling a digital training culture and constantly developing its human capital, NBK has witnessed a remarkable interest in participation from employees in professional training courses and programs during the first half of 2021, which aimed to improve employees' capabilities and actively contribute to their career development through the latest learning solutions.

During the first six months of the year, 1,433 of the bank's employees successfully completed the training programs and courses, whilst scoring the highest attendance and training completion rate of total employee participation, which signals the great passion of the bank's employees towards career development. From the beginning of the year, the Training and Development Department of Group Human Resources organized 27 interventions of in-house programs, including Yalla Watani, NBK Academy and workshops with a combined total of 661 participants.

The training programs held in the first half involved soft skills training, covering areas of building a performance-driven culture, that gained intensive attendance with a total of 282 participants, who all of which attended a variety of 15 soft skills training sessions; covering all levels. Due to the massive interest witnessed, a total of 975 staff were enrolled in 32 planned sessions according to the annual training plan.

Furthermore, NBK organized specific courses and workshops for leadership and development training, as well as courses focusing on leading the digital transformation, in line with the bank's digital roadmap. In the meantime, the Training and Development Department intensively worked on developing 3 specialized curriculums for IBG, Corporate, CBG, Foreign Corporate and Oil and Gas, as well as Trade Finance and Internal Audit in coordination with Moody's Euromoney and Deloitte, with a total of 156 attended participants.

In addition, 72 employees attended Middle Management Program across 4 cohorts, delivered by Learning Tree International. With the shifting direction towards digital learning, Training and Development took the advantage of training 44 employees from NBK overseas branches across multiple development programs.

On this occasion, Ahmad Darweesh, Head of Training and Development at National Bank of Kuwait quoted: "At the Training and Development Department, we are proud of the progress made in implementing a map of top-notch training programs aiming to help promote a digital culture across NBK Group, in line with the bank's digital transformation strategy."

"Today, Group Human Resources has a digital infrastructure and a unique training and development system that are on par with international best practices. The bank's E-Learning platform was developed into an advanced easily accessible digital platform that offers various training programs, including induction for newly hired employees, training requirements of the Central Bank of Kuwait, as well as programs for developing key competencies, aside from its function as a tool for taking tests," he elaborated.

Darweesh emphasized that the "Accelerated Learning" concept is consistently exhibited across the NBK Group, within a culture and work environment that drives employees to pursue personal growth whilst recognizing their long-term career paths, in addition to its contribution to investing in their talents and skills, which serves the bank's sustainable growth.

Darweesh noted that NBK provides equal opportunities for all its employees, by giving them opportunities to attend training programs that are designed based on assessment of corporate and individual needs, as well as being committed to developing the academic and practical skills of its staff, with a view to prepare them as future leaders.

It is worth mentioning that NBK consistently supports its employees in building their careers within the bank, believing that its sustained successful transformation depends on the diversity and quality of talents. In recent challenging times, efficient workforce proved to make a difference, acting as a strategic pillar of the Bank's strategy and ambitious plans for the future.