The learning function is critical for any industry, but especially for the micro-finance world. Microfinance institutions around the globe provide small loans to poor people to help them grow their small businesses and find their own way out of poverty with the guidance and help of a specialized Micro - Finance Loan Officer.
In one of the few Micro-finance Institutions in Panamá, they were facing problems with the effectiveness and results generated by their Micro – Finance loan Officers. The workforce they were recruiting to work in this role, were recent graduates from Uni with no experience at all, and when it came to prove their analytical and mathematical skills, they fell rather short. They realized their Loan Officers lacked the proper skills to analyze and therefore, advice clients about the right type of loan to ask for. Although they were going through training, this was not standardized and some new Loan Officers just had two or three days in the field with experienced Loan Officers to learn their function. As the experienced Loan Officers, in turn, had been through a very weak training program, they were teaching the same mistakes they were falling into. The spiral of mistakes and empirical knowledge was undermining the institution’s results and, their viability as a self-sustainable organization.

In order to help solve this situation, we created a two week long technical training plan, followed by a three week on-the-job training plan in the field. We recruited a Training Officer from the group of Loan Officers and trained her as Trainer to facilitate the training program in the classroom and to coordinate a group of Mentors (experienced Loan Officers trained for this purpose) who will guide the new Loan Officers during the three weeks of the on the job training in the field.
Additionally, the Training Officer will conduct  regular visits to the field, every three months during the first year, to monitor, identify and conduct special training in critical areas of reinforcement.

Result?  The first two groups of new Loan Officers trained under this scheme, have become change agents in the branches they have come to work. With a stronger technical knowledge and more confident than some of the experienced Loan Officers of their groups, they are now known as experts. We have started a re-training program to help this team to reach the same standards than the new group and the Training Officer is doing the reinforcement sessions with all of them together; to make sure all have the same level of knowledge.  Indicators for the Institution have started to show some improvement already and we are confident the trend will be very positive next year.

Solymar Torres
Organization Development Specialist
ACCION International