Training the trainers
16 February 2010 at 08:45 Julia Kastner 3 comments
By Julia Kastner, KF10 Mexico
When I got back to my MFI, CrediComun, here in Mexico City after a one-week trip home to Boston last week, I asked if they needed any help training their loan officers. “Absolutely not!” responded my MFI contact “we’ve got it under control!”
Me teaching a group of Loan Officers in Tula - my last training session needed!
As a Kiva fellow, my job is to make myself irrelevant. I know that sounds strange, but it’s true. My goal is to get my MFI, which is currently in “Pilot phase” on Kiva, up and running without my help in order to ensure that they’re ready to switch to “Active phase.” In the case of training loan officers, I removed myself from the process by training the HR team responsible for training staff. During Kiva Fellow training in California, we ourselves were trained on how to teach others about Kiva. We go discuss Kiva’s history, how Kiva works, and what the officers at the MFI have to do to submit and manage a loan on Kiva. I led a series of workshops here at the MFI’s central office with the management staff and the staff here at the office who will be doing a lot of the behind-the-scenes work related to the Kiva uploading process. Then I went with the MFI staff to two regional offices to do training sessions for the loan officers themselves to show the MFI trainers how it’s done. It was really fun! Seeing people learn about Kiva is really inspirational – they are always so impressed by what we’re doing and are very touched that there are strangers across the world who want to help their clients.
So, last week, I handed off my powerpoint presentation and went on vacation – when I came back, not only were my training services no longer needed, but also CrediComun had posted their first Kiva loan! Day by day I am making myself useless – and it’s wonderful! You can check out CrediComun’s profile here and please stay tuned for more CrediComun loans on Kiva!
Entry filed under: All, CrediComun, KF10 (Kiva Fellows 10th Class), Mexico. Tags: CrediComun, Mexico City.
1. Oh, by the way… « Julia Kastner – Kiva Fellow | 19 February 2010 at 17:26
[...] February 19, 2010 · Leave a Comment I posted on Kiva again: http://fellowsblog.kiva.org/2010/02/16/training-the-trainers/ [...]
2. marydear | 17 February 2010 at 19:57
nice job – knowing when to pull out.
3. Anna Cleal | 16 February 2010 at 14:59
Hey, That’s a great idea to get HR involved to do the training internally. I’m looking at running something similar here in the Philippines as the Kiva story doesn’t seem so clear and consistent within loan officers. Have you uploaded the presentation you did to the wiki so that I could maybe take a look? Cheers, Anna