Republic bank offers free advice to petrotrin workers

In an effort to smooth the transition from being employed to that of unemployed and having to start over in a new career, Republic Bank, in collaboration with the Arthur Lok Jack Graduate School of Business held the first of three free workshops for Petrotrin employees at the bank’s South Park, San Fernando branch on Saturday.

The workshops were titled “managing the change” with discussions focusing on such topics as coping with change, re-entering the world of work and options for managing debts.

Republic Bank regional sales manager (south) Annette Wattie said the decision to host the workshops was based on assisting the Petrotrin employees cope with the sudden change that a job loss would bring on both themselves and their families.

“For anyone getting up one day and realising that the job you thought you had for the rest of your life will no longer be your option, it will take a significant amount of changing in your future plans and for many people, when you get the emotions into it, you really can’t make the decisions that you would like to so we are hoping to help them as they make those decisions.”

“The workshops were very high on the soft skills, dealing with the change, how they make that transition to another job or if it is they are going to open their own business, more or less in many cases dealing with the emotional part of that significant change in their life.”

She said the bank would also offer guidance regarding their finances although the workshop is ‘very low on selling:” but on rather assisting the employees in making the right financial decisions.

“After the seminar, we have staff members who are here and they will be able to sit with them individually and give them the guidance that they need.”