The National Bank of Bahrain (NBB) Group has launched its own Data Literacy Academy, which will ensure that their staff have the necessary skills in an industry that is rapidly transforming to meet the needs of the digital economy.

NBB’s CEO, Jean Christophe launched the Academy saying: “The Data Literacy Academy is a core element of the Group’s journey towards digital transformation, the Academy aims to build sustainable skills that our employees can use to make more effective, evidence based, data driven decisions that will translate into improving organisational performance and building a pipe-line of data-literate leadership teams for the future.”

More than 700 employees from across all disciplines and at all levels of the Group were considered for inclusion in the Academy. BisB CEO Hassan Jarrar, believes that: “Being part of the Group Data Literacy Academy will become an aspirational goal for our people as they begin to see the very tangible benefits of being able to engage in data driven discussions that support decisions across the Bank, demonstrating effective analytical thinking and the value of these skills to the ongoing digital transformation processes that are simultaneously challenging, disrupting and providing exciting opportunities across the financial services industry.”

The selection of the final 80 employees to join the first cohort to attend the Data Literacy Academy has been completed, and as you would expect this was managed via a digital assessment process that identified the specific level within the Academy that is right for each employee. The Data Literacy Academy opens to the first NBB Group employees in May with the launch of the Fundamentals Module and continues in July with the more advanced Data Literacy Module.

Leading the Data Literacy Academy, Dana Buheji, Group Chief Human Resources & Sustainability Officer at NBB, said: “The launch of the Academy takes us a step further along our journey of digitalisation and creating a more efficient and skilled workforce.   One of the goals within the Group is to support our aspirations to be always considered as an ‘Employer of Choice’ in the industry, and we strive to do this is by continuously investing in our people, developing and equipping them with the necessary tools and experiences to adapt to the rapidly changing digital workplace.

She added: “NBB Group is excited to launch this initiative and provide our employees with opportunities to develop the skills that we believe will have a significant impact on employee and organisational performance.  The Academy will give our people the opportunity to learn from specialised training programmes that cover both the fundamentals of data literacy and also offer more advanced learning that will build confidence amongst our employees in their ability to offer analysis and insights, allowing them to become more effective data storytellers and for some to eventually gain an accreditation in data literacy.”