Vice governor of the bank, Ms. Ana Mitreska, was joined by her colleagues from the Human Resources Department, Strategy and Operational Risk Function, and International Relations Unit at the Governor’s office. Ms. Mitrevska stressed the key points for institutions and countries to grow in a sustainable, smart, and inclusive way, “The basic prerequisite for this is to have high-quality human capital with knowledge, skills, and intrinsic values for collaboration, tolerance, and understanding diversities. Another pivotal necessity for lifting potential growth is focusing on the quality dimension of the labor force.”

Like countless other institutions in the region, the NBRNM was also faced with the need to adapt the working environment to the new circumstances, brought by the Covid-19 pandemic. The swift embracing of the new working reality would not have been possible without people. It was the investments in human capital, made in the last couple of decades, that enabled such change. The corporate culture carefully nurtured in their national bank has traditionally been oriented towards investing in the knowledge, skills, and potentials of its people. The possibility for the employees to continuously upgrade their knowledge, critical thinking and skills, while networking with their peers across the globe, is one of the cornerstones of making an institution an “employer of choice” for young talents.

We are extremely proud that the NBRNM sees the CEF as one of its main partners in exchanging knowledge and professional experience in the last twenty years. We are also grateful to the entire bank’s staff for recognizing that “the CEF, even before the occurrence of the recent health crisis, embarked on major changes, empowered by the new digitalization tools to make the learning process more inclusive and interactive. The online learning campus and blended courses offered are an example that proved to be visionary and critical in the 2020 pandemic, allowing an undisrupted continuation of the learning process.”

Equally, the CEF sees the approach of the NBRNM as a great example for many other institutions in the region, a true knowledge hub. A concept we strive to promote through our work. As the CEF’s Director, Ms. Jana Repanšek points out, “We look forward to working with the NBRNM experts in raising awareness of the importance of strategic investment in human capital. We are happy to have a partner that together with us acknowledges the need of institutions to focus on what we recognize as the six building blocks of becoming and being a learning organization: Governance and Culture, Partnerships, Funds for Learning and Knowledge Sharing, Knowledge Capturing, Packaging and Sharing, Communication about Learning and, last but not least, Monitoring and Evaluation.”