‘No one size fits all approach, but sufficient attention for your specific knowledge and experience and the environment in which you work.’ That’s what the course description on our website says about our Compliance Officer training. But what do our participants say?
Different backgrounds
‘’I work as a Legal Counsel at one of Europe’s first startup accelerators,’’ says Carien van der Merwe. ‘’In the past, we hired external Compliance Officers, but we would like to fill the position in-house. We are currently developing our compliance function. To develop myself further in this field, I wanted to follow a compliance course.’’
As we pointed out in the course description of our Compliance Officer training, the course is suitable for professionals with different backgrounds. Someone with a completely different background from Carien, is Milos. As a Lead Expert Audit with Internal Audit at a large wealth manager, Milos Radivojevic is in the third line of defense. He’s not part of the compliance team himself, but he is responsible for auditing the compliance and risk management functions. ‘’They all depend a lot on laws and regulations. The more I understand the applicable requirements and the compliance function, the more I bring to the table when it comes to my reviews. From the perspective of competence that we want to build in our team, this course was the only one that met our needs.’’
Both Carien and Milos were struggling to find a compliance course in the Netherlands that was available in English as well as Dutch. Carien: ‘’I was considering following an international compliance program in Frankfurt when I came across this course. Besides the fact that the course is taught in English, another important factor was that the course is certified by DSI. This not only means that the course is recognized by the market, but also that the content is verified.’’
This was the only Compliance course that met our needs
Applicable in daily practice
Of course, it takes an additional effort to follow an intensive program such as this one, in addition to working full-time. Nevertheless, both Carien and Milos find it doable so far. Milos: ‘’We only have about five scheduled hours a month, the rest is flexible. I would be reading or doing something around the topic anyway, so I might as well add structure around it by following this course.’’
‘’Because you can make the assignments very personal and focused on aspects that you want to focus on, they are useful in practice,’’ adds Carien. ‘’For our most recent assignment, we had to map out the legal framework for our own organization. If I didn’t have to do this for the course, I still would’ve done this in two or three months.’’
Another example is the compliance charter. ‘’We were provided with an outline of a compliance charter and it was explained how it works and what the benefits of having one are. This was very useful to me. As our compliance function grows, I can incorporate what I learned in the course into our compliance charter.’’
For Milos, this is quite different. ‘’As an auditor, I wouldn’t normally perform these activities in my day-to-day business, but I do need this knowledge. Therefore, the assignments have real added value for my personal development. Following this course also opens new doors for me: I can share the knowledge with other colleagues in my team and if the company needs, I would still be able to bring value in a different, but related role.’’
Learning from your peers
The fact that the participants all have such different backgrounds, makes the plenary meetings that much more interesting. After handing in their homework, the group discusses their assignments together. ‘’Seeing how the others have done their assignments provides us with a bigger picture and helps us improve processes at our own organization,’’ Milos explains. ‘’During the discussions, the teacher contrasts my company, which is very regulated, with the other companies, many of which are ‘light managers’. This is very interesting.’’
‘’Because Carien and I have such different backgrounds, we can learn a lot from each other. I can really benefit from her explaining certain regulations to me, while I can help her see things from a business and audit angle.’’
Want to know more?
Carien and Milos’ have successfully finished the training in January 2022, and received their ‘Qualified Compliance Officer’ title and diploma. Do you want to join the new group of aspiring Compliance Officers that starts the course in October 2023? Read more about the Compliance Officer training in the course description or brochure.
