Outward Bound Training for HNB student managers

Hatton National Bank in its efforts to cultivate the savings habit among school children initiated the school banking unit concept in schools way back in 1994 with the opening of the first unit at Royal College Colombo.

Since then the bank has setup 166 School Banking Units across Sri Lanka where student managers who are groomed to take leadership in running a mini bank in his/her school get actively involved inculcating the savings habit among fellow students. The bank takes the student manger concept very seriously and trains more than 1,000 student mangers to carry out their duties at HNB school savings units.

The bank recently undertook a series of special outward bound training programs for its student mangers with the assistance of Outward Bound Trust Sri Lanka in collaboration with the Sri Lanka Business Development Centre. The programs were conducted in Colombo, Negombo, Ratnapura, Galle, Tangalle, Bandarawela, Wariyapola, Trincomalee, and Jaffna.

This outward bound program for student managers was specially designed to unleash the hidden potential, develop self confidence, leadership qualities, team building, and effective communication and to promote a sense of community service and involvement in CSR activity.

The program was instrumental in developing a positive mindset while improving the planning capability and the need for proper empowerment among these student leaders. The training was conducted by a team of resource personnel trained locally and overseas on outward bound training while the training methodology was based on group activities.

Following the successful implementation of the program, student managers participated stated that it was a great opportunity to develop leadership, cooperation, patience and humanity through team activity. The efforts by the HNB and its crew in preparing the participants to face success, victory and loss at a balanced pace were much appreciated by the participants.

“We are very happy to take part in this programme that brought a lot of learning on how to team up together and work on our projects. The program offered not only fun but equally a superb learning environment on many socio-cultural spheres. We were able to identify our strengths effectively through carefully-designed team activities during the project,” said Savinda De Silva, member of HNB School Savings Unit of St Peter’s College.

The bank was instrumental in setting up 166 School Savings Units within schools in the country over the last two decades. Student managers appointed to work at these units carry out the banking functions at school level.  Annually, the bank trains 1,000 student managers on banking, marketing, management, communication, team building and leadership, through an expert team of renowned and professional resource personnel.

‘HNB Singithi,’ the bank’s minor savings scheme, is successfully marketed by way of two product offerings namely, ‘Singithi Lama’ and ‘Singithi Kiriketiyo’. The ‘Singithi’ product progressively caters to various stages across childhood of a minor from newborn toddler to child.

The bank’s Teen Savings Account, for the 12 plus to 18 years old ‘Teens of Today,’ has effectively catered towards making smart and intelligent students who look forward to a bright future, through an accurate understanding of the importance of saving and education.

A student who maintains a balance of Rs. 25,000 in a Teen Savings Account of HNB is also eligible for free internet banking facility, a free mobile phone connection and a supplementary credit card besides the eligibility to win scholarships worth over Rs. 6 million. A student with a minimum balance of Rs. 10,000 at the account is eligible for the ‘Pathum Vimana’ Draw.