Sharjah Islamic Bank (SIB) has launched ’Kawader Program’, an innovative learning initiative aimed at developing talented Emirati cadres and qualifying them to hold higher administrative positions in the bank’s various departments and branches.

Kawader program offers Emiratis the opportunity to learn, work and advance their careers through the use of the best educational tools, training programs and development schemes.

The program was launched at the bank’s main office in Sharjah in the presence of Deputy Chief Executive Officer, and heads of groups and departments as well as a number of bank officials.

They listened to a detailed presentation about the leadership development program and its importance in developing talented national cadres and qualifying them to takeover top administrative positions in the future, in the light of the administrative experiences they gained and the capacity to deal with new developments, and take the right decisions.

The event began with a detailed presentation by Sanjith Ibrahim, Deputy Chief Assistant of Human Resources Group, about Kawader program, in addition to a brief summary on "Masar" Program, which was launched earlier by the bank to develop Emirati leadership and talent. Ibrahim highlighted the two programs as well as their mechanism of progress and national outputs.

This was followed by a speech delivered by Jassim Al Bloushi, Head of Retail Banking Group, who spoke about the importance of development of highly qualified staff in leading positions in the branches of the bank. He thanked the Development Department for its support and also encouraged the trainees in the development program to live up to the bank’s expectations and to further exceed them. He believed that the best way for any organization to achieve its strategic objectives is to develop and enable its staff to hold higher posts.

At the end, Eissa Al Za’abi, Deputy Director General of the Emirates Institute for Banking and Financial Studies, spoke about his rich experience in his administrative graduation, and urged the trainees in the Kawader Program to commit to some leadership skills that qualify them to be in higher posts soon to serve their country better and in an optimal manner.

The bank’s implementation of this program comes as part of a series of various events related to the career development of its staff on the basis of its ambitious strategies to increase staff competence and efficiencies, and improve the performance of discharging their duties commensurate with the bank’s reputation.

The program reflects the bank’s eagerness to apply the highest banking standards that enhance the presence of Islamic banking, as well as to achieve its ambitions of having strong banking structure in the best service of the banking sector in the UAE.

Regarding the Kawader Program, Eman Jassim, Head of Human Resources Group, said: "The Bank’s Development Department has embarked on the implementation of the Kawader program designed to train future leaders in the bank after selection of a specific group of qualified employees. An elite group of 11 outstanding employees was chosen after they passed a test resulted in the selection of 8 employees, two men and 6 women, as well as 2 outstanding employees from the "Masar" program, bringing the total of participants in the professional development process to 10 employees."

Eman added that the selected employees will be put under the supervision of the bank’s leaders during the period of the program as they will be given the opportunity to learn and gain more experience through their proximity to decision making centers, and enrich them with administrative experiences in all areas of business. The participating employees in the program will also be enrolled in many training courses and offered the opportunity to take over some projects, so as to learn theoretically and practically and come out with positive results. "

The program will continue throughout 18 months and will be implemented in four phases, the first of which will involve the field training on banking tasks of banking and customer service, and operations. During the second phase, the trainees will include various administrative trainings, while the third phase will give the trainees the opportunity to know the various sections in the bank.

The fourth and final phases will see the conduct of the final assessment and evaluation in preparation to enable them to takeover the administrative positions designated for the trainees.

At the end of the session, Ahmed Saad, Deputy Chief Executive of Sharjah Islamic Bank gave away certificates of accreditation and admission of employees who comprise of the first batch enrolled in the program in the presence of Eissa Al Za’abi, Deputy Director General of the Emirates Institute for Banking and Financial Studies.

The employees are: Abdul Rahman Al Hammadi and Laila Al Hosni of the Masar program designated for higher departments, Mohammad Sabah, Nadia Mohammad, Nasser Al Ali, Samira Al Daheri, Aisha Bani Hammad, Rasha Al Musalmi, Aida Al Musalmi and Hajer Al Mazim, from Kawader Program.
Al Zaabai received a memento from SIB Deputy Chief Executive on the occasion.