Singapore, 30 April 2013 – OCBC Bank is the first Singapore bank to dedicate a building in the country’s central business district to meeting employees’ learning and development needs. Officially opened today by Acting Minister for Manpower, Mr Tan Chuan-Jin, and the Chairman of OCBC Bank, Dr Cheong Choong Kong, OCBC Campus is a wholly-owned 10-storey building that was refurbished to become a learning and development hub for the more than 17,000 employees of OCBC Bank and its private banking, insurance and securities brokerage subsidiaries in Singapore and globally.

The opening of OCBC Campus is the culmination of OCBC Bank’s efforts over 40 years to build a core of talent for the banking industry. In the last 10 years, investment in training has grown as OCBC Bank expanded to a universal financial services group that includes insurance, asset management and brokerage entities.

When OCBC Bank established a training department in the 1970s, courses were conducted externally on a small-scale, ad-hoc basis. In the 1990s, a basic training facility was established in OCBC Bank to provide soft-skills training programmes. In 2006, the training department transformed into a full-scale Learning & Talent Development Academy with 3 faculties – Banking & Finance, People Development and Quality & Service. An entire floor at OCBC Centre was converted, at a cost of S$2.4 million, into classrooms to train OCBC Bank’s then 5,000 employees.

With a minimum of 5 training days established as an annual requirement for all employees in OCBC Bank since early 2003, employees can choose from a wide range of in-house training courses from technical banking and insurance courses to leadership and managerial skills programmes. These courses have enabled staff to upgrade their skills and sharpen their leadership capabilities to prepare them for new challenges or expanded roles in the group. As a result, more than 25% internal positions are filled by existing employees every year.

Occupying over 32,000 sq ft of learning space, OCBC Campus has 12 classrooms, 8 discussion rooms, 1 service simulation laboratory, 1 multi-purpose hall, 1 video recording studio and 1 theatrette. OCBC Campus offers a full suite of training and development courses developed in-house and jointly with external partners such as INSEAD Business School, with over 130 classroom-based programmes and over 60 e-learning courses covering three key areas of focus: Banking & Finance (eg. Introduction to Consumer Banking); Leadership & Employee Development (eg. Leading as a New Manager); and Quality & Service (eg. Emotional Resilience for Service).

An example of a Leadership programme that ensures a pipeline of future leaders is the OCBC-INSEAD Executive Development Programme. This exclusive two-week programme is developed jointly with INSEAD Business School and customised to OCBC Group in order to equip high-potential employees with leadership capabilities and organisational knowledge required to support the Group’s growth.

With the increased capacity and number of courses, more than 110,000 training seats are available to employees every year. The number of classroom-based programme has increased by 30% and e-learning courses increased by 10% this year.

OCBC Bank’s retired senior staff will be invited back as Guest Trainers to share with employees their knowledge, experience and insights.

Since the soft opening on March 4 this year, about 30 programmes have been conducted to date, attended by more than 1,200 employees from OCBC Bank, Bank of Singapore and Great Eastern Holdings.

Said Wendy Lim, Manager, Customer Care & Retention, Global Consumer Financial Services, OCBC Bank, who attended a two-day Crucial Conversations course at the Campus from 11 to 12 April, "There were about 20 colleagues from different divisions in OCBC Bank, Bank of Singapore and Great Eastern, in the class. We were taught how to apply different kinds of skills to varied situations to achieve a better outcome. I also learned from my classmates’ sharing of their views and experiences, which I found very useful in my line of work."

OCBC Campus will open selected learning and development programmes, conferences and seminars to OCBC Bank’s corporate clients and partners. Also, students from all faculties of the top three Singapore universities – National University of Singapore, Nanyang Technological University and Singapore Management University – will be able to attend banking & finance training programmes, career talks and forums where employees will share on-the-job experiences and industry trends, and networking events with senior management of OCBC Bank and its subsidiaries.