ProCredit Academy

The key to ProCredit’s success is our employees, who put our positioning and philosophy as a “Hausbank” for small and medium-sized business and retail clients into practice. Responsible financial intermediation requires staff who are able to establish long-term relationships with our customers, analyze credit risk reliably and provide excellent service in a competent and responsible manner. Our investment in training over the years and the resulting ability to respond quickly to changed circumstances has placed ProCredit in a strong position to adapt effectively to the more volatile operating environment which generally prevails in emerging markets, and particularly following the financial crisis. Given the demands we place on management staff and the specialists who serve our SME clients and retail clients, much attention is focused on appropriate training, provided, in particular, through our two-tier academy programme in Fürth, Germany. The first level of the ProCredit Academy consists of a one-year part-time course, the ProCredit Banker programme. This programme is open to all interested employees and aims to bring together competent specialists and potential managers to learn and actively exchange their views on the company vision and business strategy. This programme is also the prerequisite for the ProCredit Management Academy as participants with the highest potential for further development will be selected to continue with the two-year programme. Over the years, the ProCredit Academy has aimed to train all interested staff, Business Client Advisers, Client Advisers, Credit Risk Analysts, and head office specialists. Staff members are selected for participation based on their bank’s assessment of their performance and personal development to date. Since the participants include staff from each ProCredit institution, students have the unique opportunity to undergo intensive training with peers from different cultural backgrounds over a longer period.