Twelve commercial bank employees completed a three-day course on “Problem Solving and Decision Making Techniques” on November 28, 2007.  Organized by the USAID-funded Economic Development and Growth for Enterprises (EDGE) project, the course was designed to improve participants’ problem solving and decision making skills, including through topics such as: identifying and diagramming problems; understanding the cycle of problem solving; using force field analysis, the Six Thinking Hats technique, and brainstorming. The instructors used exercises, role play and case study techniques to reinforce learning and give the participants the opportunity to practice the new skills.

Bulent Berkay, President of the Turkish Cypriot Banks Association, congratulated the participants at the graduation ceremony and presented each with a Certificate of Completion.  Murat Bulbulcu, Program Assistant for USAID, and Kent McNeil, Senior Consultant for EDGE, also congratulated the participants on their successful completion of the course.

The participants in the course came from five different commercial banks.  In keeping with the model to establish long-term sustainability for the training courses, the instructors were volunteers who participated in the EDGE Training of Trainers program which teaches them to design, develop and deliver training courses.  The instructors graduate from the program once they have successfully delivered a course that they themselves have developed.  This course, consistent with EDGE’s overall activities, was designed to improve the environment in which Turkish Cypriot businesses function, as part of a program to foster a durable economic foundation for the future reunification of Cyprus.

Like all like all U.S. government programs in Cyprus, EDGE is aimed at facilitating reunification of the island, including through encouraging responsible economic growth.