"Financial Banking College" Foundation Executive Director Armen Saroyan`s interview to Mediamax Agency and Banks.am portal

- What are the main directions of the "Financial Banking College" Foundation activity?

- Mission of "Financial Banking College" Foundation is to assist financial system culture development through realizing complex educational, research and consulting programs. Our activity is implemented in three main directions:

Specialized secondary education, which is the leader of secondary financial education in Armenia;

Financial banking training center, which implements a complex program of short-term courses on professional development for financial system employees, trains personnel for CB by means of "Central Bank: Introductory Course" educational program, implements corporate and individual research programs on financial organizations’ orders.

Long-term education and research center, where "Lifelong Education" way of thinking formation process is implemented. Here, "Banking System of Armenia: Introductory Course" three and six-month courses, "Loan Specialist’s Training Course" two-month special training program and other programs are being implemented for people with higher education. Computer certification of financial system employees and identification of educational needs in financial organizations are also conducted.

- What can a specialist, qualified by the College, count on in terms of job placement?

- Within the framework of specialized secondary education, we prepare specialists for the following professions: "Banking Business", "Finances" and "Insurance". We provide the students, who graduate from the College with honors, with job in the financial system of Armenia. The rest of the graduates have the chance to take part in short and long-term professional development programs, to increase their competitiveness. The best graduates, after exams on certain subjects, can continue education in State Universities, starting from the 2nd or the 3rd year of classing, simultaneously working by their specialty.

We have established a single data base, which includes all the graduates of our programs and due to which we are actively watching their professional career development.

At present, our employees work in the financial system of Armenia, particularly, in the Central Bank, commercial banks, credit and insurance organizations. In a number of banks they hold positions of branch managers, heads of departments, loan specialists, banking account managers, accountants, cashiers.

- What advanced training courses and educational programs does the Foundation implement for specialists, operating in the financial system?

- Every year, we conduct over 50 short-term courses on retraining, long-term educational programs, trainings, corporate educational programs, researches for employees of the financial system and applicants, and annually over 800 specialists take part in them. Our educational programs are being implemented both in Yerevan and in marzes of Armenia and the Nagorno Karabakh Republic.

Today we offer over 65 different courses, educational programs to the financial system of Armenia, establishment, planning and implementation of which are based on the analysis of last year’s poll on revealing the needs among financial organizations, the gained experience and trends in financial market development.

The leading specialists in the financial system of Armenia teach here; in case of necessity famous foreign experts are invited. Let us note in 2006-2008, over 2000 students took part in "Financial Banking College" Foundation’s courses; among them heads of financial organizations, heads of representative offices, leading specialist, applicants.

Since the year of 2006, the Foundation has been also training specialists for the Central Bank. "Central Bank: Introduction" three-month educational programs are held twice a year for those, who wish to work in the Central Bank. By that time, 400 students took part in the program, most of them, after completing the computer attestation, work in the Central Bank.

- Since June, 2009, "Financial Banking College" Foundation has been implementing "Crisis as an opportunity" program. Which is the main goal of this project?

- The Foundation initiated "Crisis as an opportunity", program responding to the realities of the financial crisis. The program aims at increasing awareness, developing professional skills, formation of a new mentality under the crisis among three groups of the financial system: young specialist, middle managers and heads of financial organizations.

We try to establish an atmosphere, which will allow considering the global financial crisis as a temporal segment, which is directed at forming a new mentality, attracting unused recourses, mutual assistance and unification, synergetic cooperation and establishment of a society for realizing opportunities.

Within the framework of "Crisis as an opportunity" program, three meetings were held, two of which were meant for the young specialists and one for heads of organizations.

Over 400 young specialists took part in the meetings: graduates of our program, heads of financial organizations, members of the Central Bank Board, employees of the government staff.

Lectures and seminars were held by Prime Minister of Armenia Tigran Sargsyan, Head of World Bank Yerevan Office Aristomene Varoudakis, Head of Armenian Representative office of the International Monetary Fund Ninke Omes and members of IMF official delegation from Washington.

- Does the "Financial Banking College" Foundation plan for new initiatives as to development of the financial system and improvement of financial education?

- Soon, along with crisis backoff, we plan to launch a new "Armenia as a country of realizable opportunities possibilities" program. Within the framework of the program, we will be able to establish new opportunities for development and professional growth for the employees in financial system of Armenia, who wish to contribute to development of financial education through holding lectures, seminars, meetings, in which foreign specialists, experts will also take part.

In the first half-year of 2010, we plan to start "Public Rating of Financial Organizations" program, which will allow presenting the level of contentment of basic consumers of financial services to the public, giving a comparative analysis and establishing various nominations, in particular, in terms of opportunities for developing the society and the economy.

Since October, 2009, the Foundation has been realizing "Regional program on Women’s Competitiveness Improvement via Financial Education" in Dilijan together with the International Foundation of Agricultural Development (IFAD). The main goal of the program is to contribute to increase of unemployed women’s competitiveness with the help of theory and practical skills and to prepare qualified beginning specialists, who can occupy their place in commercial banks and credit organizations of Armenia. We are going to make programs on personnel training traditional in the regions and in 2010 we are going to organize analogous programs in various marzes of Armenia and the Nagorno Karabakh Republic.