Training needs of community credit groups Strong community credit groups owned and managed by the community itself need a strong cadre of leaders, competent and committed staff, and enlightened and alert members.
Some of the constraints faced in the development of a training programme are one, the training needs are vast, since most of the community have never before come together as a group on an economic front; two, the members of the community are busy and time for training is more often than not a charge on earning time; three, low literacy and numeracy levels amonngst the members, limiting the number who receive training support requiring reference to the written word.
Typical training areas include:
Training programmes can take the shape of formal courses of short duration, on-th-job training with field back-up, study visits to highly successful women's savings and credit organizations, peer review, workshops of leaders across groups, cluster meetings, etc.
- operational rules development (for group leaders and members)
- simple book keeping (for those among the group responsible for accounts)
- interest calculation (for those among them responsible for accounts)
- preperation of receipts and payments statement (for those among them responsible for accounts)
- fund management (for group leaders)
- default management (for group leaders)
- organization and conduct of meetings (for group leaders)
- peer review (for group leaders)
- network management and development (for group and cluster leaders)
- staff recruitment (for cluster leaders)
- auditor recruitment (for cluster leaders)
- vision development (for cluster leaders)
- budget development (for cluster leaders)
Hari Srinivas - hsrinivas@gdrc.org
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