New skills for a digital future

The good news: Lifelong learning does not mean sitting still in a classroom all day long. Working people report that they feel more motivated to learn than when they were at school. This is because the content is more practice-centric, and can be implemented directly. Furthermore, lifelong learning promotes personal development by making space for new ways of thinking and skills, which can further develop individual strengths.

“Upskilling” for tomorrow’s working world

With its learning journeys, Commerzbank offers a structured qualification programme that prepares employees specifically for the demands of the future.

The “Upskilling – Skills4Tomorrow” learning journey is a particularly varied programme. It teaches future-centric skills that are immediately applicable in everyday working life. Simultaneously, it promotes cross-divisional understanding and bolsters the personal network within the bank, as participants from different business disciplines meet and learn together.

The term “learning journey” stands for the idea of bundling different formats – such as workshops, exchange formats and e-learning. The content builds on itself, and allows sufficient time between courses for practical applications. “Meaning that learning is a process here and, at the end of the journey, you benefit from comprehensive professional and personal development,” explains Susan Weinert, Product Owner of Cell IT & Specialist Knowledge and responsible for the bank’s upskilling and reskilling offering.

A look at practice: Silke’s learning journey

The example of Silke – who works in Group Operations at Commerzbank – shows what such a learning journey can look like in practice. Together with her colleagues, she ensures, among other things, that payments arrive in accounts, financial products are processed correctly and customer hotlines remain reliably accessible.

Silke has completed the “Upskilling – Skills4tomorrow” learning journey. That means quite an intense programme: Over the course of several months, she completed around 90 hours of e-learning courses and workshops, accompanied by regular feedback from the trainer. Silke did a lot of this from the comfort of her home office.

“The curriculum included skills and expertise relating to communication and digitalisation,” says Silke. The topics included self-organisation, resilience and agile working. As well as customer contact, the digital working world and Microsoft 365. “It was really helpful for my work at the bank,” explains Silke. The dialogue with the other participants was also valuable.

Optimally networked throughout the bank

The learning journeys bring together colleagues from all over the bank. For months, everyone meets time and again, in order to exchange their experiences. “Especially when colleagues from Sales and the central units come together, there is a lot of mutual understanding,” emphasises Silke. This has allowed her to familiarise herself with completely different working methods and requirements.

On balance, several hundred employees take part in the learning journeys at the same time. In each case, 15 to 18 colleagues form a learning group.

Certificate: yes – Examinations: no

Our learning journey “Upskilling – Skills4tomorrow” is certified by TÜV Rheinland. Those who attend at least 70 per cent of the courses receive a certificate without a final examination. A valuable addition, including for the CV. Like all other Commerzbank qualification programmes, the learning journey takes place during working hours. With “Learning Time +”, the bank also offers the opportunity to utilise its internal learning platform for a total of eight hours per quarter during working hours – entirely according to your own interests and needs. This also includes thousands of courses from LinkedIn Learning.

In addition to “Upskilling – Skills4Tomorrow”, there are a number of other learning journeys to choose from that are dedicated to the latest challenges from the working world. These include, for example

• “Shaping the future with the right provisions”: Pension provisions, financial provisions for children and cover for life risks
• “Python learning journey”: Learn the basics of programming
• “DigITal – heading into the delivery organisation”: Qualification as a Business Expert or Business Specialist

The learning journeys are designed to cover a wide range of interests and needs, and are open to our employees from almost all areas. Participation in a learning journey is discussed and planned in a meeting with the direct manager. The structured and practice-centric learning opportunities are intended to encourage all employees to become part of a learning journey in the future.