Bid to hone skills of employees

Al-Ablani: The program comes in line with NBK’s consistent efforts to invest heavily in data analytics and processing to understand customers’ needs and behaviors.

As part of its continuous efforts to invest in human resources and qualify them with the best training programs that are on par with international standards, National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) announced the launch of “Data Analytics Academy” program, in partnership with SAS, with the aim of imparting its employees with the required skills in Data Analytics. “Data Analytics Academy” program will be held virtually over 6 months through March 2022. It will be attended by 22 trainees from different departments, and will cover 9 modules ranging from beginner to advanced levels.

The program launch was attended by Mr. Sulaiman Al-Marzouq, Deputy CEO of National Bank of Kuwait – Kuwait, Mr. Emad Al-Ablani, GM – Head of Group Human Resources, and Mr. Mohammad Al-Othman, GM- Consumer Banking Group, Mr. Sudhakar Nibhanupudi - Chief Data Officer, in addition to other executive leaders and a group of officials from Training and Development Department at the bank. This program aims to enable participants to learn SAS programming for data science, machine learning, and artificial intelligence, whilst training them on how to access, explore, prepare, and analyze data, through data manipulation techniques. The in-depth 9-module program will cover basic statistical concepts that are critical in understanding and using statistical methods, and predictive modeling within the SAS/STAT software, as well as enhancing the skills required to assemble analysis fl ow diagrams, and how to process SAS data by using Structured Query Language (SQL). The program will focus on improving the understanding of patterns within the data, and the discovery of values using algorithms, techniques and systems to extract knowledge and insights, thus enabling more innovative decisions and solutions, which contributes to improve and develop the performance of all the bank’s units.

On this occasion, Mr. Emad Al-Ablani, GM – Head of Group Human Resources at National Bank of Kuwait Group said: “Through the professional training courses provided to employees, NBK Group Human Resources plays a vital role in driving the bank’s journey towards shaping its digital future.” “Our training and development strategy at NBK Group Human Resources is focused on contributing to qualify its human cadres to be both capable of and committed to embracing innovation, which has become a key constituent of the bank’s digital culture,” he added. Al-Ablani noted that the program comes in line with NBK’s consistent efforts over the past years to invest heavily in data analytics and processing to understand customers’ needs and behaviors. In this regard, the bank established a stateof- the-art Data Center in Kuwait back in 2019, for the purpose of analyzing huge amounts of data to study customers’ trends and needs to enable it to make quick and well-informed decisions that constantly meet customers’ expectations. It is worth mentioning that SAS is one of the international companies specialized in Data Analytics and Management and Information Technology. NBK pays paramount attention to developing the capabilities of its employees, harnessing all its resources to progress their career by providing top-notch training and development programs, in cooperation with the most reputable educational institutions around the world, in order to keep pace with the key changes in the banking industry. The bank’s human capital development strategy is placed at the heart of its strategic plans, as the efficiency of the work ensures the quality of all types of banking services provided across the different markets in which it operates.