The COVID-19 lockdown measures in Germany introduced in March initially brought all of our on-site training courses to a standstill. This called for a change of approach. The online courses opened the door to completely new formats. First of all, we had to clarify how we envisaged future courses to look. How many participants should there be? – We agreed on around 30 participants per course to make the experience as interactive and personal as possible. At what time should the online courses take place? – Ideally at around midday (CET) so that central bank employees from different time zones could participate. Which platform best allows for active course participation? We were won over by WebEx with its chat tool, survey function and the opportunity to ask questions directly. We decided to completely redesign our online courses and adapt them to the changed framework conditions.

Launch of online courses with statistics topics

We have now tested a variety of online course formats, starting things off with a series of statistics seminars in May. For this series, we put together three independent 90-minute online seminars; one on consumer price indices, one on Google trends and one on big data. Our experience in this new virtual environment was very positive. Despite short course units and changing participants, an intensive exchange of expertise also successfully took place online.

New modular online courses

In September, there will be an online course series on the topic of “Crisis management at supervised credit institutions – best practices for recovery, resolution and liquidation from a supervisory perspective”. The special feature of this course is that it consists of four modules:

• M 1) Need for crisis management,
• M 2) Best practice for recovery planning in banks,
• M 3) Recovery plans from the perspective of the competent authorities, 
• M 4) Experience from resolution and liquidation proceedings from a supervisory perspective.

As the modules build on each other, the number of participants in this series will remain the same. Participants will receive a certificate of active participation after the course, as is usual for our on-site courses.

In mid-October, the Directorate General Statistics will hold an online seminar – which was previously an on-site course – for the first time, entitled “Elementary seasonal adjustment of economic data with JDemetra+”. It will take place in the week from 19 October to 23 October 2020.

New topics in the area of financial stability

At the end of October, we will launch a new online course format on current topics in the area of financial stability. Similarly to the first courses in the field of statistics, we will be offering an independent online course series with six modules on various topics. We will start by presenting the Financial Stability Review, which will be published in October of this year.

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Text: Charlotte Kimmel