Sustainability training with pioneering character
Starting in September, the ZHAW School of Management and Law will provide all employees of Thurgauer Kantonalbank with comprehensive training on various sustainability topics. A project of this form and scale is a first in the Swiss banking landscape.
The topic of sustainability has been part of the entrepreneurial thinking and actions of many Swiss companies for many years. Thurgauer Kantonalbank is taking a pioneering role in training on this topic. Starting in September, its 800 employees will be trained by a team of experts from the ZHAW School of Management and Law. "To varying degrees, all employees - from apprentices to members of the executive board - will come into contact with various sustainability topics in a tailored manner," says Andreas Schweizer, project manager and lecturer for Corporate Banking & Sustainable Financing at the ZHAW School of Management and Law.
Pioneering role of TKB and ZHAW
"We don't know of any other bank in Switzerland that is taking on the task of building up knowledge about sustainability to this extent and training its employees in this way," says Schweizer. To this end, the project team, consisting of employees from Thurgauer Kantonalbank and the ZHAW School of Management and Law, has developed a customized training concept. In around 1,900 training days, the staff of Thurgauer Kantonalbank will address the challenging question of how the opportunities of a sustainable economy can offer added value in daily customer contact.
Sustainability training consisting of self-study and classroom instruction
The training courses are designed in such a way that knowledge is imparted in several stages and in a way that is appropriate to the employee's respective function. In addition, according to Andreas Schweizer, various forms of learning are combined, such as self-study, virtual live training and face-to-face instruction in particular. "We want to offer participants flexibility with location-independent access to learning content, but still promote dialog among each other in direct exchange."
Transformation causes costs
According to the Swiss Bankers Association, over 387 billion will need to be invested for a sustainable transformation of the Swiss economy by 2050. However, this figure will grow even further due to the additional social transformation. This large amount of investment will have to be financed to a large extent by the banks. That is why they have an important role to play. "There is a lot of potential, but also a great many risks. Among other things, this involves business models that are not fit for the future or new technologies that then do not become established," Schweizer specifies. "Against this backdrop, the development of knowledge in the banking industry is of great importance. With its training project, Thurgauer Kantonalbank is taking a big step in the right direction.
Source: ZHAW
