Emirates Bank Award Ceremony

The Emirates Bank Group, along with its in-house Global Training Centre, GTC, was proud to play host to the bank's first award ceremony which congratulated employees on their completion of the Blended Learning programme through the Global English programs.

The award ceremony was held at the Al Bustan Rotana Hotel on Sunday 17th September, and was attended by Jamal Bin Ghalaita, Louis Scotto, GM-Retail Banking, HRS Ramakrishna Movva, Head, Strategic HR & Development and few of the EBI managers.

As Emirates Bank looks to expand into new markets and integrate global operations, more and more of UAE staff need to work together across regions and languages. It is a fact that English is the language of business. Technology has connected employees like never before, and English is now part of the regular workday for many employees at Emirates Bank.

As Shekhar, GTC Head said, "We need to equip our National colleagues with English language skills so that they become confident about handling their jobs."

Heyam Khalil, Business Communication Manager, affirmed, "My objective in starting this programme, was to initiate a course involving collaboration through E-learning technologies and face-to-face classes for the UAE staff at Emirates bank. The programme was convenient, flexible and interactive for the staff and helped them to become more confident and to perform their job well.'

'During our first blended learning lesson, I realized that different people learn in different ways and there is no best way to learn. I am proud to have been in that experience. Speaking the truth, we all have experienced a new trend in language learning; it was challenging and fruitful and more of a first time trial in learning dependency,' explained Rehab, one of the learners.

The successful students were awarded certificates and prizes in recognition of their hard work and commitment to the programme. Emirates Bank first introduced the Global English Blended Learning programme in October 2005. The programme is designed to help students develop their Business English language skills and comprises many online activities and assignments. Starting with just seven students, the Global Training Centre now has over 200 users who are enjoying the programme's benefits.

As a recognised world-class service provider, Emirates Bank continues to grow from strength to strength as the UAE staff gains in qualifications and training.

Paul Gledhill, director, Xpert Learning said, 'E-Learning as a solution in the Middle East is a relatively new modality. It is sometimes necessary to start these projects in familiar classroom environments prior to encouraging students to take the initiative to learn for themselves online.

'Global English is a very comprehensive and complete solution but the enthusiasm and assistance of the GTC training team, really helped kick start the project. This is a prime example of how, with the right support infrastructure from both technical and human resource perspectives. Online learning solutions can work perfectly.'