How to unlock career success in the banking sector

22 November 2023

Global Central Banking and Financial Regulation qualifications participant, Bogdan Badescu, shares his academic and professional highlights of the programme.

Studying the Global Central Banking and Financial regulation was quite challenging, there were a lot of interesting materials that needed to be covered and the final assessments for each module tested your understanding of the topic studied. From this perspective, it was time-consuming, which is why I would say that time management is of critical importance. To get a better understanding of the programme I suggest reading the programme handbook, this resource was something that I found to be useful.

A highlight of this course is the focus on practical learning, as we engaged in projects and case studies that enhanced our problem-solving skills. I particularly found the involvement of the Bank of England in the programme to be a good approach, as it offered the possibility to blend theory with practice. The study materials provided by the Bank complemented the theoretical concepts in our discussions.

This was my first experience with online learning and I was suspicious at first, but as the modules unfolded, I realised the flexibility that such a system provides was of great value. Most likely I would not have been able to graduate the programme if fixed hours for the classes were established. In addition, without the possibility of online learning, it would have been impossible for me (and I think for most foreign students) to attend it.  Even online, the live interactions with the professors during the webinars and the possibility to add comments to the lessons kept up lively debates. Finally, it is also worth mentioning that this flexibility allowed me to pursue my career, as well as family responsibilities while continuing to study.       

I decided to enrol on this programme, for two main reasons. Firstly, from a professional perspective, the job that I do (I work in a central bank) requires a good amount of knowledge of what are the main activities of a central bank and of the instruments and strategies used to carry them out. Secondly, from an academic perspective, I was also trying to develop my knowledge in this area, with the idea of pursuing an academic career in a field related to the central banks’ tasks and activities.

Consequently, I wanted a comprehensive course related to the activities of the central banks, tools and ways of implementation and the rationale behind them. Now, given that I have graduated, I can say this programme offered me the needed information and has supported me professionally and academically. Plus, I got a small bonus in the form of an ethics course, the first one that I ever had.