Axos Bank’s Internship Program Revamp: Boosting Skills and Motivation With CFI

When I looked at the hours they were spending on training, the majority of our interns were doing more than the required hours. I’ve only heard positive things from them.

Ali Oatridge is an HR Specialist at Axos Bank, an innovator in digital banking that provides an extensive range of financial services and products. She works with all of the entry-level programs at Axos, including managing their internship program—something she was eager to improve.

“I’d heard about the dissatisfaction with other online training courses and, with our VP of Learning and Development, looked into rolling out a training program specifically for interns that would be part of their initial role.”

Pushing ahead quickly to get ready for their summer interns, she worked with CFI to create a custom learning path that could be done within three months. The result? Interns who not only gained job-ready skills but were highly engaged and excited about learning them.

Customized Learning for Just What They Needed 

“I was looking for increased satisfaction from employees with Axos’s training, them being able to grow while they’re here, and feel in charge of the areas they want to grow in,” explained Ali. “And to have a training resource available as a benefit to being in one of our entry-level programs.”

She worked with the CFI team to build a list of required and elective courses, with open access for interns to learn anything else they were interested in. Ali provided modules they’d used in the past so the CFI team could put together course equivalents—like Reading Financial Statements, Professional Ethics, and Accounting Fundamentals—and build out a strong training path from there.   

“The CFI team actually took the initiative to find more courses that expanded on those topics and include them as electives,” Ali continued. “And as an admin, I really liked how easy it was to put in profiles and grouped cohorts. It was so easy to set that up.”

Quality Training That Builds Job-Ready Skills 

Beyond the range of topics covered and the quality of course content, the delivery and learner experience stood out to Ali. “We really like how interactive and fresh it is, and it’s so much more user-friendly and appealing for them,” she said. 

But appealing doesn’t mean easy—each course is designed to build skills and knowledge that really stick. “They’re very intuitive and built to pay attention. You can’t just breeze through it if you want to pass the qualification assessments and get the Certification.”

That’s something other leaders at Axos Bank noticed too. Other managers who had interns training with CFI started using it to help full-time employees fill skill gaps.

They identified areas where they were struggling or needed to strengthen particular skills. “We added their email addresses, set them up to take relevant courses, and boom—they had additional training they could engage with. And it lessened the managers’ workload not having to spend their extra time doing that training,” said Ali. 

High Engagement Leads to High Motivation 

Most importantly, the employees themselves are excited about training and gaining real-world skills they can put to use (and show off). 

“When I looked at the hours they were spending on training, the majority of our interns were doing more than the required hours. And they’re adding their Certificates on LinkedIn and even printing them out and putting them up in their cubicles,” Ali enthused. “I’ve only heard positive things from them.”

The self-paced, more autonomous nature of training with CFI also empowers employees to learn and explore as much as they want. “A lot of our high-performing interns got a lot from this. It was really cool to see them finding value,” she said. 

What Axos Bank’s Interns Had to Say 

Cooper, Credit Analyst Intern: “The CFI courses were pretty straightforward, easy to follow, and they contained useful information. It was also useful that they could be done at your own pace as opposed to having a deadline. Combining the material with on-the-job learning/training is very useful, especially for the course on creating financial models.” 

Krithik, Risk & Compliance Intern: “The CFI Modules were very valuable as they helped expose us to a variety of financial concepts that were fundamental to understanding the procedures of a bank. The courses were well-designed, offering videos that were concise and weren’t too long, which allowed them to be moderately engaging. The tests at the end were also a good way to check your knowledge and covered the content of the courses fairly well. Having the opportunity to work on these at our own pace also helped manage them with our other assigned workload.”

Isaac, Jr. Banking Analyst (JBA): “They were very informative and taught in a manner that was very easy to follow. The course had really great handouts that I use and refer to a lot. Would definitely recommend it to JBAs, especially coming out of college in order to bridge that gap between what you learn in school and transitioning to being in a professional career path. Could also be a momentum booster for JBAs to pursue outside education and certifications.”

Looking for ways to build practical finance skills at your organization? See what CFI for Teams can do for yours.