In Based upon disciplinary foundation... – A study on teachers’ prerequisite for continuing pro- fessional development (CPD) I have examined the prerequisites that teachers in Nacka have for CPD, due to the new school law that states that all teaching must be based upon disciplinary foundation and proven experience. According to a recently published governmental report, as well as international research, not only structural aspects like time and financial compensation are crucial to whether teachers continue their development. Encouragement from the principal and colleagues are also a contributing factor; and not to mention those factors combined. There is a world wide shared consensus among educational researchers claiming that one very important piece in creating a successful school is having a well-educated and updated staff. By embracing that idea, in our new school law, there must also exist a platform where that idea can be implemented. The aim of this study is to find out to what extent teachers in Nacka are given prerequisites for continuing professional development, in other words carry out their assignment according to the law. This study is based upon two questionnaires sent to all primary school teachers in Nacka and their principals. What are the structural prerequisites that teachers in Nacka are given for CPD? Does principals encourage their staff to further CPD? Are their any local or regional plans regarding CPD? Do the teachers’ and the principals’ respective views regarding prerequisites for CPD correlate? The study showed that even though teachers and principals had similar views of the different prerequisites, principals did rate their strategies more positive than teachers valued them. It turned out that only one principal had a plan for how to make his or her teachers to continue their development. Maybe the teachers were not aware of their prerequisites; perhaps the principals overrated their offers. But what was clearly shown is that there is a lack of communication between the teachers and principals.

Financial services institutions invest in self–service technologies for various reasons. These include the demands to rationalise costs and to meet the channel preferences of a „technology- savvy‟ client base. Some advantages of self–service technologies (“SSTs”) include the optimisation of staff activities and faster and improved customer services. Retail banks experience various migration-related costs when migrating customers to an SST environment; in terms of both branch infrastructure and the development of employee skills. Some customers continue to favour face-to-face service interactions, which necessitates an identification and evaluation of the necessary skills required by employees to facilitate this migration process. This study aims to both identify and classify the requisite skills needed by financial services professionals to enable them to migrate customers from physical to electronic service channels; including ATMs. With the appropriate training and competencies, employees can guide customers more effectively through the migration process in a non-judgemental way. This would, in turn, address the lack of self-service technology understanding among customers in the longer term. The lack of support from skilled service employees has, in many instances, led to customers paying higher transactional fees and experiencing inconvenience at physical channels, thereby resulting in overall lower self-service usage. / Business Management / DBL

Financial services institutions invest in self–service technologies for various reasons. These include the demands to rationalise costs and to meet the channel preferences of a „technology- savvy‟ client base. Some advantages of self–service technologies (“SSTs”) include the optimisation of staff activities and faster and improved customer services. Retail banks experience various migration-related costs when migrating customers to an SST environment; in terms of both branch infrastructure and the development of employee skills. Some customers continue to favour face-to-face service interactions, which necessitates an identification and evaluation of the necessary skills required by employees to facilitate this migration process. This study aims to both identify and classify the requisite skills needed by financial services professionals to enable them to migrate customers from physical to electronic service channels; including ATMs. With the appropriate training and competencies, employees can guide customers more effectively through the migration process in a non-judgemental way. This would, in turn, address the lack of self-service technology understanding among customers in the longer term. The lack of support from skilled service employees has, in many instances, led to customers paying higher transactional fees and experiencing inconvenience at physical channels, thereby resulting in overall lower self-service usage. / Business Management / DBL