Pub. 5 2015-2016 Issue 6

O V E R A C E N T U R Y : B U I L D I N G B E T T E R B A N K S - H E L P I N G C O L O R A D A N S R E A L I Z E D R E A M S May • June 2016 7 and blue-collar jobs through a robust apprenticeship system, keeping youth unemployment rates low: a rare accomplishment. While U.S. companies largely avoid collaborative training programs for fear of trainee poaching and the resulting lost investment, each Swiss industry sector partners with government to develop industry qualifica - tions and assessments, training curriculum, andadditional course work for students. The system produces highly skilled, ready-to-work new employees for Swiss business- es, serving as a real and important economic incentive for businesses to participate. In short, aminority of young people finish college in the U.S. andasignificant numberof themcan’t findemployment in the field where they were educated and they’re saddled with large amounts of student loans. In Switzerland, 70% of high school graduates go into the VET program – and complete it, usually with a good job in their field and no student debt. They finish their programwith needed skills because the courses and on-the-job training are dicated by the industries that will employ them. There are very high completion and job retention rates, and the Swiss students have great enthusiasm for learning practical skills in the field that interests them. The system intentionally allows students to move be- tween academic and vocational studies aswell as fromVET on to higher education at a university of applied sciences. Because of this, employees beginning their careers on the factoryfloor or ina bankhave a real chance toone daymove up the corporate ladder by pursuing further education and advanced qualifications. That bodes well for our industry. As banks transform the functionality of their branches tomeet theneeds of their customers, the traditional roleof tellers is evolving intomore of a “universal banker” function, inwhich frontline employ- ees canassist customersnot justwitheveryday transactions but with investment, mortgage and retirement needs. A working group of CBA board members has taken on the task of determining what a pilot program for banking apprenticeshipmight look like. That said, any agreed-upon effort needs to coordinate with associations representing other industries, assess the level of government and edu- cation support, collaborate with others, position the effort as a viable alternative to acquire employable skills, and understand what we need to invest and how to produce the outcome we desire. In the U.S. apprenticeships are viewed as applying to blue collar jobs. The Swiss on the other hand see the vast majority of all banking employees (including several bank CEOs) coming out of that system with amazing results. For example, Credit Suisse has 650 apprentices at any point in time and after an intense training programoffers a permanent position to 80% of them with practically 100% acceptance of those offers. And the jobs are in low level beginning positions. They are in credit analysis, loan underwriting, customer interaction and other key and responsible positions where they are well supervised during the training program. It is clear that the apprenticeship model offers nu - merous major benefits to banking, and brings with it challenges, questions and concerns. Further, it requires a significant investment. A bottom line is that this is a huge task, but one that has potential for substantial reward. n Don Childears President and CEO Colorado Bankers Association