Distinguished coordinators and CEF staff,
Esteemed colleagues,
It would have been our greatest pleasure to welcome all of you in Bucharest, to the CEF Coordinators Meeting 2020, to share ideas about the good practices in the Human Resources strategic management and exchange experiences in building and consolidating our capacity for the learning and development program. Instead, the pandemic led us outside our comfort zone and pushed our capacity to adapt, by transforming our meeting to a series of online events. Today is our first conference call, in a string of four interactive virtual events planned to help us achieve the sharing of expertise and extend the CEF role as regional learning hub.
Please allow me to express our appreciation for your remarkable work and endeavours, as we have been impressed with the learning outcome and the path towards the envisaged achievements. On behalf of the Romanian presidency of the CEF Governing Board, we present you our token of gratitude for your outstanding results in such unprecedented and challenging times.
As coordinators for the Center of Excellence in Finance activities, you guided the shift of all in-class learning to online activities in the digital learning campus. The 14th CEF Governing Board by correspondence has just concluded and the learning and development outcome is impressive. The results reflect the struggle, the passion and the conviction deployed in your activities. Your work is about the people, about the aspirations and about the belief that by dedication to the learning journey, we are able to create memorable learning experiences and long-term knowledge.
The CEF Learning Program for 2021-2022 is even more ambitious. It encompasses many “activities across different thematic focuses and learning formats, as well as governance and outreach events” that are challenged by the uncertainty regarding the evolution of this pandemic. More than ever, we need to bring the learning and development process closer to the trainees, making all endeavours to promote the accessibility, being aware of the needed reliance on technology, while being confronted with the cyber-security risks that might affect the online activities.
Today, we express our admiration and recognition of your efforts, to foster and enhance the individual study of the participants to the CEF Learning Program, bringing the theory into day-to-day practice, to advance the experiential learning and make a difference for their institution and country. Rethinking strategies and re-designing adequate solutions for a new framework that would fit both the online and off-line learning content requires leadership implications for future achievements.
In 1848, a visionary man in public education, Horace Mann wrote in his essay on “Education and Social Inequity” that “Education then, beyond all other devices of human origin, is the great equalizer of the conditions of men, the balance-wheel of the social machinery”. Placing the learning programs at the core of CEF strategy for learning and development processes and lifelong skills acquisition would mean a massive expansion of the online education – the future shifts towards the digital environment, including the training for professional development. This is why it pays-off to devote attention to strategic human resources development and to have dedicated team to this important area. CEF is closely monitoring the resources devoted to learning and knowledge sharing, as accelerators of individual and institutional development.
On behalf of the National Bank of Romania, you are invited to discuss about the strategic management of human resources and how the CEF learning program can contribute to people development. We wish you all a fruitful and rewarding dialogue today and for all the upcoming online events in the series of CEF Coordinators Meeting 2020.
Please accept the expression of all our best wishes for good health and strength, along with our heart-felt congratulations on your great achievements!
Bucharest,
September 30, 2020