- July will see the introduction of the Diploma as Expert Executive in Microfinance launched by the Foundation in partnership with the two universities.
- The program is a response to the current shortfall in professionals in the microfinance sector.
- The students will be awarded dual certification (Javeriana-Colombia and UNED-Spain).
In July this year, the BBVA Microfinance Foundation and its partners, Spain’s Open University (UNED) and the Pontificia Universidad, are to launch the first edition of the “Diplomado de Ejecutivo Experto en Microfinanzas” (Diploma as Expert Executive in Microfinance) in Colombia.
The course can be studied through two teaching modes, on-line and live, and will have a duration of 150 hours. The on-line training will be provided by professors and tutors through the UNED’s international virtual education platform, with the live training being held at the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Bogota involving professors and professionals with expertise in the microfinance sector.
Those students who successfully complete the diploma course will be awarded a dual certification by these two universities. In addition, those obtaining the highest academic grades may go on to professional placements and prospective employment as expert executives in microfinance in Bancamía, the BBVA Microfinance Foundation’s bank in Colombia.
The curriculum involves training students from an economic, corporate and social perspective with a view to instilling in them a broad understanding of the microfinance sector that is both specialized and adapted to the profile of their target population, namely, those with very low incomes.
For the chairman of the BBVA Microfinance Foundation, Manuel Méndez del Río, “this training program is a response to the current shortfall in professionals in the microfinance sector in Latin America that is an obstacle to expansion in the sector, which still does not provide a service for over 300 million people in the region”.
“Through this groundbreaking program for the training and qualification of expert executives in microfinance we seek to ensure the best and highest possible performance by microfinance institutions, each within their own particular environments.
Being able to call upon specialist human resources will ensure a good lending performance – in suitable amounts and quality – regarding disadvantaged people, and mean reaching out to the least favoured segments of the population, which are largely rural and far removed from any bank branch office, and therefore neglected”, added Méndez del Río.
The Diploma as Expert Executive in Microfinance is also being organized in Peru, and plans are afoot to arrange it in other Latin American countries in which the BBVA Microfinance Foundation is present.