Windhoek
A group of 12 school leavers will undergoing a six months banking training programme at Bank Windhoek. So far the bank has trained 624 candidates through its Candidate Bankers Trainee (CBT) programme, which started in 1996. At the same time CBT celebrates 20 years and have invested N$9 million in this initiative.
The programme is offered for free and forms part of the bank’s development and empowerment programmes. Bank Windhoek executive officer for retail banking services Chris Matthee said the programme is aimed at training prospective bankers and lays a strong foundation. Matthee stated that it is important that the bank provides a constant flow of highly trained individuals to the organisation and the financial sector at large.
He said the impressive and steady growth of the bank as a business, amidst competition, also called for the expansion of their workforce over the years. He indicated that trainees are not yet employees of the bank, but have the potential to become full-time employees based on their performance and successful completion of the programme.
Prospective candidates undergo competency-based testing and the final selection of the 12 best candidates is done on the results of the testing, testimonials and a general overview. For this first phase of training alone, there were more than 50 applications, but only 12 were selected.
“The candidates have to maintain an average of 80% for all assessments throughout the programme. This is to ensure that once you are placed in branches throughout the country, the service expectations of our esteemed clients will be exceeded,” remarked Matthee.
Candidate Minsozi Simasiku told New Era she is honoured to be among the top 12. Simasiku just finished her course in business administration at the University of Namibia and hopes to start her career at the bank.