1000th Community Participant in Bank of Ireland Learning Zone partnership with BITCI
For almost five years Bank of Ireland has partnered with Business in the Community Ireland in an innovative community partnership – offering places on its one-day training courses through its ‘LearningZone’ to community groups and charities in Ireland. In December a milestone was reached in this partnership when the 1000th participant from the community and voluntary sector passed through its doors.
Bank of Ireland launched this initiative in 2012 as part of its commitment to Corporate Social Responsibility. Since then, this initiative has been hugely successful:
- 16 training days offered
- 1009 training places taken up
- 259 Community & Voluntary groups involved
- 9 different courses
The last few years have been exceptionally challenging for the charity, community & voluntary sector. Several crises in the non-profit sector have seen public confidence and trust in the sector at an all-time low with a corresponding impact on fundraising activities. At the same time, there has been an increase in the demand on services. In light of this, resources available for training and professional development are in short supply.
The courses provided by the LearningZone address this real need and provide high quality, professional training in a range of topics including Influencing Skills, Negotiation Skills, People Management, Finance for non-financial managers; Introductory IT, Effective Meetings and Presentation Skills. Courses are delivered by Bank of Ireland’s training partner Accenture.
Business in the Community Ireland provides outreach support in terms of advertising and administering the registration for each course through our extensive network in the community and voluntary sector.
The response from the community and voluntary sector has been extremely positive as evidenced through the quick uptake once courses are offered – on many occasions, places are gone within the hour! The value placed on the training is best demonstrated through the feedback received from some past participants:
“Over the past years I and some of my team members have attended Learning Zone courses and every time they added incredible valuable to the team efforts and my leadership approach and contributed immensely to the improvement of team communication.”
Hedda Kaphengst – Klawitter Theatre Group
“The standard of these courses is extremely high and it is difficult to put a value on the skills acquired as a result of attending…………………………as an organisation we don’t have to cut corners when it comes to training and upskilling our workforce. Funding has become so tight in recent years, often training is the first casualty.”
Louise Cadwell – Crosscare
Bank of Ireland looks forward to continuing to support the community and voluntary sector in this unique way. “We are delighted to be able to offer our LearningZone facilities to charities and community groups through our partnership with BITCI. 1,000 participants is an incredible milestone to reach and I want to thank all my colleagues and training professionals in LearningZone for the part they have collectively played in using their skills for the benefit of the not-for-profit sector in Ireland.”
Eamonn Eaton, Head of Group Learning & Development, Bank of Ireland
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Tags: bank of ireland
