EDUCATION: AN INVESTMENT IN THE FUTURE

Germany's most important resource may be intangible, but it is on everyone's lips: education. The country's Federal Ministry of Education and Research considers advancement through education and lifelong learning to be among Germany's major political and social challenges. There is a general consensus that we all have to continue to learn throughout our lives. Continuous further education is vital in order to cope with the challenges of the future and to confront them head on. Whether at school or at work, investing in education means investing in the future. At BANK IM BISTUM ESSEN, we therefore focus heavily on offering continuing professional development (CPD) for our employees, and in doing so we ensure that expertise and high quality standards will remain the hallmarks of our bank in the future.

Last year, we once again invested substantially in advanced training for our staff and increased the number of CPD days. 592 days were dedicated to training, which averages out to more than five days per member of staff.

All customer advisers at our bank take part in a sustainable investment course, 'ecoanlageberater' – which has won awards from UNESCO – in order to ensure they are specialists in this area. We do this because the concept of sustainability plays a key role at our bank.