The philanthropic financial institution BBVA Microfinance Foundation (BBVAMF), has selected Drillster, an adaptive microlearning application, to ensure critical competencies remain at the forefront of their employees’ minds. By using the app, BBVAMF enables their people to develop knowledge, awareness, and skills, while retaining these newly acquired skills in the long term. This met the need to create an innovative and future-proof learning program for their organization.

Sustainable development

BBVA Microfinance Foundation (BBVAMF) is dedicated to the sustainable development of entrepreneurs under vulnerable conditions. The foundation provides its proprietary methodology: ‘Productive Finance,’ which includes financial services, training, and advice to support the entrepreneurs’ progress. By placing microentrepreneurs at the core of its activities, BBVAMF offers them a comprehensive range of financial products and services. Over the past seventeen years, the foundation has leveraged the 160 years of BBVA’s financial experience to serve over six million low-income entrepreneurs. BBVAMF identifies an entrepreneur’s potential through attributes such as creativity, commitment, perseverance, empowerment, and a sense of responsibility, which are all acknowledged and valued. The goal is to support entrepreneurs in sustainably generating a flow of net income by establishing long-term relationships and prioritizing their welfare and development.

Learning and developing skills

To achieve this, learning and development are at the heart of BBVAMF. Developing and retaining knowledge and skills are crucial for organizational advancement and to further assist clients. The learning program is divided into two paths. One path focuses on leadership for individuals responsible for attracting, managing, and developing strong relationships with clients. The other path concentrates on skills to build complementary online and mobile access to the range of products and services. For all BBVAMF Microfinance Institutions, training is organized through both classroom and online sessions, utilizing a shared Learning Management System.

Fighting the forgetting curve

BBVAMF aimed to leverage new technological innovations to make their learning program future-proof, more attractive, accessible, and personalized. The foundation was also seeking a solution to combat the forgetting curve—a phenomenon where people forget most newly gained knowledge within a week. As BBVAMF employees must keep certain competencies at the forefront, it is crucial that they retain this knowledge and skills after learning them. They found the solution in Drillster, an adaptive microlearning application. Its innovative methodology and technology ensure that employees develop critical knowledge, awareness, and skills, keeping them top of their minds.

Proof of Concept

They initiated a Proof of Concept (PoC) with the microfinance institutions Financiera Confianza (Peru), Bancamía (Colombia ), and Microserfin (Panama), all a part of BBVAMF Group. This approach allowed them to test the application and its acceptance within the organization. Marta Pascual Orbe, Talent & Culture – Talent Management at BBVAMF, explains: “The PoC was the best way to discover the app’s great potential. It prompted those involved in talent development to think about the next steps: new topics, new goals, and new experiences that could seamlessly meet their needs.”

In love with training

“It is fair to say that the first results are good,” continues Marta Pascual Orbe. “As a philanthropic financial institution, we provide not only mandatory training but also new commercial, analytical, and technical development processes. We expect Drillster to deliver these critical skills across the BBVAMF Group. It is a smart learning app that keeps critical competencies top of mind, enabling people to deliver top performance by using the right knowledge at the right time, when necessary. It’s just what we need to boost our training program and take it to the next level of performance. Ultimately, we want our people to get re-energized and fall in love with training again. We look forward to what the future, together with Drillster, has in store for us.”