As part of its efforts to equip employees with essential digital skills, OCBC Bank is introducing a training programme for all its 29,000 staffs globally under one of the largest transformation initiatives ever carried out by a Singapore bank. The bank said it plans to invest $20 million over three years in the digital initiative called OCBC Future Smart Programme.

OCBC’s chief executive Samuel Tsien, head of group human resources Jason Ho and head of learning and development, group human resources Yap Aye Wee were present to launch the project on Tuesday (May 8) by at OCBC Campus in Tanjong Pagar Road.

There are seven specialised digital domains where employees will receive training, which include digital business models and ecosystems, technology and data, customer-centricity, new risks, marketing and communications, as well as “the way we work” and leadership in the future world.

These areas are deemed critical for OCBC employees to attain digital competency, with proficiency in each domain will be measured across one of four qualification levels. The staff are also required to go through four qualification standards to assess their level of skills: awareness, literacy, practitioner-level, and mastery.

“Employees can choose to deepen their knowledge in one or more of the seven digital domains by participating in the courses available in the next level of qualification standards. Upon completion of the modules for that level, the employee will be certified to have attained that qualification standard,” said OCBC.

See: New SkillsFuture Scheme to Help Companies Provide Better Training

For a start, OCBS staffs in Singapore, Malaysia, China, overseas branches and the Bank of Singapore will be the first to participant in the programme, with subsidiaries Great Eastern Holdings and Lion Global Investors following thereafter.

About 6,000 online programmes and speaker sessions, workshops, and classroom learning are prepared in the seven-domain curriculum, with all employees expected to attain the minimum level of competency – “awareness” – across the seven areas by the end of the programme’s first year.

Additionally, the bank will also adopt a ‘gig’ approach, a method where freelance employees can take up consulting jobs with teams to run digital projects. External professionals will be hired to conduct courses in their areas of expertise at the OCBC Campus, too. OCBC will initially bring in experts in “human-centred design and agile methodology” to teach employees design thinking skills, the Straits Times reports.

OCBC’s head of group human resources Jason Ho said businesses must take steps to ensure survival through digital competencies.

“New technologies will continue to emerge so it is critical that we create a strong learning culture that encourages a mindset receptive to learning, unlearning and relearning. Our hope is that employees will carry this mindset beyond the workplace too, because digital plays such an important role in our personal lives and we need to continuously learn how new technologies can help us,” Mr Ho said.

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