OCBC rolls out $20m digital upskilling programme

The OCBC Future Smart Programme will be available for the bank’s 29,000 employees across the world.

OCBC Bank has launched a massive workforce digital transformation programme for its 29,000 employees globally.

Powered by $20m investment, the three-year OCBC Future Smart Programme will cater to the OCBC Group’s global employee pool in Singapore, Malaysia, China. It will also be available at the bank’s private banking arm Bank of Singapore and will be consequently rolled out to the group’s subsidiaries Great Eastern Holdings and Lion Global Investors.

“The speed at which technology is changing can make us vulnerable – jobs that are here today may be gone tomorrow,” said OCBC Bank Head of Group Human Resources Jason Ho. “Businesses must therefore take steps to ensure that employees have the digital competencies needed to thrive.”

Also read: 156 banks in Singapore target inclusive hiring

The bank identified seven critical areas necessary in improving digital competency. Key areas include understanding digital ecosystems, application of new technologies and data, innovation of new approaches for customer value creation, understanding risks and digital communication tools.

The seven pillar curriculum comprises of a suite of 10,000 learning programmes as well as a number of speaker sessions, workshops and classroom learnings in over 50 categories. Employees have to go through four qualification standards namely awareness, literacy, practitioner level and mastery following a thorough digital assessment.

Also read: OCBC unveils $240m purpose-built data centre

Employees can also take up consulting gigs with teams managing digital projects on a freelance basis. External gig professionals will also be tapped to lend their expertise at the OCBC campus.

“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,” Ho added. “This is the motivation behind the OCBC Future Smart programme, and is in line with Singapore’s drive toward becoming a Smart Financial Centre and Smart Nation."

OCBC earlier released its first quarter financial results with profits rising 29% YoY to $1.11b amidst expanding income from lending and wealth management business.

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