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After my graduation in finance and some brief experiences in accounting and investments, I landed straight into the development finance world at Oikocredit, a long-standing social development investor based in the Netherlands, as a Financial Risk Analyst. While my educational background provided me with appropriate and wide-ranging theoretical knowledge to embark on this new experience in Risk Management, I was feeling a lack of a more practical knowledge, which could have helped me to deliver more effectively in this new role.
After receiving advice from several colleagues about the e-Campus courses, I decided to enrol myself in the Certified Expert in Risk Management (CERM). I am glad that I’ve embarked on this journey. This was indeed what I was looking for, an extremely practical course, coupled with some good and easily digestible theoretical background and with lots of case studies which allow you to get your hands dirty with good old school risk analysis with just a couple of spreadsheets and a bit more. At the same time, through this course, I was able to look even closer into the reality faced by Microfinance institutions, which is a market segment that you would hardly have the possibility to cover in any other graduate course.
Content wise, the course is quite comprehensive. It covers most of the highly relevant topics for a meaningful and insightful risk analysis. I personally really appreciated the substance given by the linkage with supranational regulations like Basel of which I was already familiar with and the connection to real case studies directly from the fields. This material allowed me to immediately improve processes and procedures for the identification, quantification and management of risk in my current position and further strengthen the company’s enterprise risk management framework. Surely, I had to adjust this knowledge to the different reality of a Microfinance Investment Vehicle rather than a Microfinance Institution, but the background is pretty much the same so the extra step consists mostly in connecting the dots.
The online learning format has been quite helpful for allowing me to study at self-pace, so that I didn’t have to stick to a fixed schedule. This permitted me to focus on my work projects when needed. The course also comes with a lot of extra material, which would easily let you take the extra mile even after the end of the course. This is surely the ultimate course for someone who is trying to get a more profound understanding of MFIs and an exposure to the Risk Management topics that are a part of the daily routine for someone working in the investment and risk fields.
I saw that e-campus is also giving the possibility to attend summer events, which would allow you to have that real engagement feeling that is inevitably lost by attending an e-learning course. I find this to be a great opportunity in order to expand your network and exchange experiences in a more informal setting. I won’t be able to attend but I hope to make it for the next session, and maybe start with a new course in the meantime.
Frankfurt School gGmbH
Adickesallee 32-34
60322 Frankfurt am Main
