More than 40 full-time instructors, four training centers around the globe and over 928 days of custom training taught in the past 12 months from subjects ranging from ‘how to present at a fixed income fund mandate’ in Singapore through to ‘pricing and trading options’ in London and ‘M&A strategy’ in New York. Our courses range from graduate and intern programs through to global core curricula.
For over 11 years, we have delivered financial training based on specific client remits. We listen, we build, we deliver and we measure the impact we have made.
We made a pledge when we started the company, training should be used to deliver business change for the client. It should be used to translate in to measurable $ or € or ¥ or £. Click on the list below to see how do we do this:
- Knowledge of your organization
We can’t deliver a bespoke course unless we know your business model, products and your own internal and external client base. We gather this from your publicly available material and anything you share with us through meetings with the line. To enhance this process we have built a content extranet to expedite content build and give clients a corporate history of their learning material. We don’t enjoy meetings for the sake of meetings, we will work virtually with you for sign off and meet to thrash out the difficult elements. Take a look at a sample content extranet to see how we work.
- Embedding your competencies
We will agree on what good looks like before we build the course. This can be taken from your own competencies or ones we have gathered via best practice. We can take what you have or run unobtrusive needs analysis. The case studies and simulations we build will contain exercises that generate outputs that can be measured against these competencies e.g. a role play between a corporate banker and a client to determine their ability to prepare and communicate complex ideas or a bond pricing exercise to determine computational ability. Take a look at a sample scorecard to see how this works.
- Instructors
Our tutors understand the financial markets, first-hand: in previous roles in the markets, they’ve lived through it and have had to demonstrate their ability to both tough it out during the bad times and enjoy the upturns. They combine this experience with their ability to convey ideas and knowledge to impart skills ranging from constructing hedging solutions through to M&A strategy.
- Delivery
Training evolves every year. Classroom delivery has become just one component of a wider spectrum. Our tutors use an array of slides, simulations and case studies. Key initiatives we have undertaken are:
- Ability to fuse soft skills and technical skills to convey real life skills such as ‘how to write financial reports based on Basle III’.
- Ability to include topical and scalable case studies and simulations: we have 6 full time developers building out simulations for use within the classroom and outside of the classroom. Examples include a post course lifecycle of a client simulation where attendees review scenarios and undertake work remotely – whether that be an equity portfolio simulation or a corporate banking client relationship.
- Ability to record what is taught for post course review. The reality is that most students only absorb a % of what is taught even with heightened interactivity. From 2007, we invested in a professional video camera in each class and a full time editing suite staffed by 3 editors. We take everything that is recorded and package for use on a portal. Students revisit the conceptually difficult components such as option pricing, valuation approaches and portfolio theory.
- Ability to deliver e-learning. We have a library of e-learning components and surveys for pre and post course work that are embedded in bespoke portals. Take a look at a sample portal and some more information on our simulations.
- Mechanics and Administration
Poor administration will drain you and leave a poor impression on your employees. We have a full time team of programme managers who work to gantt level processes to ensure we execute from ensuring laptops are wifi connected through to material getting through reception. Take a look at a sample Gantt of how we work
- Management Information
What is the RoI on training? By embedding competencies in to our case studies and simulations we are able to generate a quantitative report. The assessments can be as simple as a review of computational ability through item set questions on the Greeks through to a case study on the Lifecycle of a Trade. We will render a report available via your training manager portal or in hard copy. Where required, we will add our own insights on the students. This process is overseen by a programme manager coordinating the tutor pool.
The evidence – take a look at our case studies below
