The following post is provided by the Asian Confederation of Credit Unions (ACCU), a World Council associate member organization comprised of national credit union organizations in more than 20 countries.

ACCU certified 34 credit union leaders and professionals from Indonesia, Nepal and the Philippines as Development Educators at a January workshop.  

The virtual DE workshop started with a session on the in-depth knowledge of the global cooperative and credit union movement, and the challenges facing credit unions in Asia. 

"ACCU continues to serve its members in a different delivery manner during the pandemic, and the Virtual DE workshop is one of them," said ACCU CEO Leni San Roque. "The in-person DE program is undoubtedly the ideal method, but we cannot wait for the pandemic to be over to resume our programs."

The DE program had 13 sessions on credit union origins, development issues and leadership.

"The development issues are always updated based on what is relevant in the present time," said Ranjith Hettiarachchi, ACCU's Chief Technical Officer.

The Impacts and Response to COVID 19, Emotional Intelligence, Business Development Services and Financial Resilience were the new topics during the two virtual sessions. According to Ranjith, ACCU ensures that the program provides participants with skills and knowledge to use after completion of the training. 

The virtual setting follows the same objectives and achieves the same outcomes. By the end of the workshop, the DEs became more driven by the credit union mission and strived to be persuasive presenters.  There were mentors assigned in five groups, including:

• Paul Dawson, CEO of the First Choice Credit Union - Australia;
• Adam Millbank, Executive Manager Brand of Australian Mutual Bank; and
• the ACCU team of Ranjith Hettiarachchi, Kamon Kittiasirihumpon and Leni San Roque.

ACCU plans to organize an in-person meet-up for virtual DE graduates once travel bans are lifted or eased.