Why a learning culture in tech is important

Learning (time) and personal ambitions

With today’s struggle for talent and fast changing technologies it’s now probably -more than ever before- time to put learning and personal ambitions of engineers in the banks’ spotlights. Learning as an integrated part of the engineers’ work, and not a ‘side step’ from work. Enhancing their professional career is now in reach for each of them. Besides some effective and cool tools that engineers can use, Rabobank is also offering them the time to do it. Engineers are encouraged to use about 10% of their sprint time on both professional development and personal leadership.

Learning engineers are happy engineers

Working in a tech environment means working in an ever-changing field. The only way to keep up with these, is to learn and develop ourselves continuously. Fortunately, learning is not only necessary but also means a lot of experimenting and fun. It gets the best out of yourself. Within Rabobank we believe learning engineers are happy engineers. Scrum master and Agile coach Jorrit Kortink experienced Rabobank’s learning culture first-hand:

“At every step of my five-year Rabobank career I’ve received a lot of opportunities to learn and develop. In addition to learning via platforms like Pluralsight, my managers have supported my ambitions to develop myself. Comparing this to stories I hear from friends at other companies, the learning culture is one of the things that sets Rabobank apart.”

Liezl Lüdick who works as a Software Engineer experiences that software development is a demanding and ever-changing field:

“In our field regression starts the moment one stops learning. Fortunately, it’s the desire for continuous learning and the application of newly acquired skills that draw people into IT in the first place. Learning engineers are happy engineers, and Rabobank truly understands and supports this on all levels.”

Happy engineers attract new colleagues

The tech skill development and the ambition of engineers receive full attention at Rabobank. Anticipating on new developments and take them into account when designing new application is daily business for the engineers. To be able to keep up with these continuous developments the learning culture is essential for the future of Rabobank. Our learning organization (or organization of learning) makes a significant contribution to the satisfaction of our ‘techies’ and that’s an important condition for attracting new tech staff.

Award for Learning Culture

Rabobank is one of the pioneers when it comes to a learning culture. As an exponent of that, the important strategic virtual IT Learning provider Pluralsight has given this year’s Best in Tech Award for ‘Culture of Continuous Learning’ to Rabobank. The award was handed to Business Analyst Paul Hoogendijck and Tech Lead Alexandra Fonville in October 2022 in Salt Lake City, Utah. In this way Pluralsight rewards technology companies that innovate by investing in their technology employees. A welcome recognition, but the best reward is that our current and new techies also recognize our progressive learning culture.

Do you want to know more about talent development at Rabobank? Read employee stories in GROW Magazine and learn all about the combination of doing something you are good at and developing skills that ensure a good future perspective.

Inspired to start or continue your tech career at Rabobank? Check out our vacancies, like the vacancy for Security Specialist or Product Owner.