Career and training

skillaware is a joint campaign run by the associations and social partners Employers in Banking, the Swiss Bank Employees Association and the Association of Commercial Employees. The focus is on raising awareness and motivating all stakeholders in the banking industry to address their basic labour market readiness.

skillaware promotes employees’ awareness of their own competencies and supports them in their development and their professional training in times of technological, economic and demographic change. A self-evaluation on 16 defined basic competencies offers all employees a unique opportunity to reflect and analyse their own employability.

The three associations have developed 16 basic competencies together with experts. These are based on strategic organizational and personnel development within the Swiss banking industry. These competencies are to be understood as an industry-wide minimum standard and are intended to ensure labour market quality as a “basic level of fitness”. The basic competencies:

• are compatible with Swiss banks’ existing skill and performance models and talent development programmes
• apply equally to all bank employees across all specialist areas and hierarchical levels
• represent assessable knowledge, skill, and behavioural requirements for employees and managers
• can be learned and promoted

All bank employees can evaluate their basic competencies in an online questionnaire, completely anonymously and in compliance with the strictest data protection guidelines, and thus obtain an idea of where they stand. Detailed information on the self-evaluation and the link to the questionnaire platform are available at www.skillaware.ch in four languages. By participating in the self-evaluation, employees are made aware of the basic competencies of today’s labour market skills and where they stand from their own perspective.

All employees can assess their employability through self-evaluation and the corresponding assessment. Employees whose results show potential for improvement receive transparent feedback on where and how they can develop further. The banks are prepared to work with their employees to examine where there is a need to close any gaps and to initiate appropriate measures together. In addition, employees have the option of an orientation meeting with independent, professional careers advisors. List of orientation meeting providers

Employees who are interested in further training after the self-evaluation base their approach primarily on the internally defined processes. After completing the online questionnaire, employees can also discuss any questions and possible follow-up measures with a careers advisor or coach in an orientation meeting/consultation.

These orientation meetings can take place through a variety of channels:

• Association consulting
  • for members of the Swiss Bank Employees Association
  • telephone consultation by the SBEA
  • Arrangement and scheduling of a free orientation meeting
• Consultation via the skillaware coordination and support office
  • for non-association members
  • Information on the website www.skillaware.ch

For members of the Swiss Bank Employees Association, the orientation meeting is financed by the association. Non-members can arrange a meeting based on special conditions at a price of CHF 150. The skillaware coordination and support office is available to provide advice.

First and foremost, it is the responsibility and decision of the banks to offer and finance further training measures (internal or external) for their employees. Details must be negotiated between employers and employees.

Bank employees who have been members of the Swiss Bank Employees Association for more than 2 years may apply to the Foundation for Continuing Education and Social Purposes for support.

The orientation meeting is conducted with professional career advisors and coaches and includes, in addition to a situation assessment, a reflection on the results from the self-evaluation. In addition, possible further steps are discussed.

The skillaware coordination and support office provides a list of appropriate points of contact for this purpose.

List of orientation meeting providers