Confession time: staring at the CFTEA catalog with hundreds of courses can feel a little like standing in front of Netflix at 10pm—so many options, and suddenly you forget what you even wanted in the first place. It’s easy to get stuck before you even begin. So here’s the trick (and what I’d do if I were brand new or just plain unsure): Pick one result you want before the end of the year. Doesn’t matter what it is—confidence, a
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Board Spotlight: Kayla Caikauskas, Lighthouse CU From Teller to Leader: How CFTEA Helped Me Find My Path Like many in the financial industry, I didn’t plan to be here…I stumbled into it. I needed a full-time job and landed at a bank. What I didn’t expect was to fall in love with the work, the people, and the purpose. I spent several years as a teller, but I found myself yearning for more. That “more” came when I joined the
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Budget season is here. And while AI dominates the headlines, it hasn’t taken over the world yet. Have you seen those robot dogs that can barely climb stairs without face-planting? (Boston Dynamics, we’re looking at you.) Budget season is never fun: what gets funded, what gets cut, what gets put off for “next year’s budget.” With employee turnover, it’s tempting to think training can wait. But the real question isn’t “Can we afford to train our people?”—it’s “Can we afford
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Turns out CFTEA travels well—our logo has officially made it all the way to Italy. Here’s the takeaway: learning doesn’t stop at borders. Just like a well-worn passport, education goes with you wherever you are—and it opens doors you didn’t even know existed. At CFTEA, we’re not just about courses—we’re about perspective. When you invest in your development, you’re building skills that matter whether you’re in America, the Amalfi Coast, or anywhere in between. So, what can we learn from
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Budget season is here. The question isn’t “Can we afford to train our people?”—it’s “Can we afford not to?” Community financial institutions stand out by investing in their people, and CFTEA makes it easy with affordable, flexible courses and recognition. Employees—ask your manager what options are available. Managers—what better investment could you make than your team?
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My journey With CFTEA Proves That One Course Can Open a Lifetime of Doors I am incredibly proud to have a relationship with CFTEA that spans 20 years. Our journey began in the fall of 2005 when I enrolled in my first course as a teller at Bath Savings. You guessed it – Principles of Banking! This course remains one of the first that many employees of the Bank take to gain foundational knowledge of the banking industry. I was
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Real issues. Real skills. Real leadership. The past few years have thrown everything at today’s leaders—COVID, economic whiplash, supply chain chaos, social and political unrest, hybrid work headaches, and let’s not even talk about AI taking over half the meeting agenda. Leaders everywhere are scrambling to make sense of it all while still keeping their teams engaged, supported, and successful. That’s where CFTEA’s newest Guided Learning course—The Leadership Experience (a full 3-credit course) comes in. This isn’t a “leadership from
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Want to stand out as a rising star in your career? Working effectively with the public isn’t just about showing up with a smile—it takes learned skills and behaviors to deliver outstanding service that rises above the competition. That’s exactly what you’ll gain in Quality Service, part of the Certified Modern Banking Representative program. Many successful banking employees look back with pride on this certification as the spark that set their careers in motion and students consistently give it two
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Tammy’s got your back—and probably your textbook order too. At CFTEA, we don’t just process course orders—we partner with you. (Think less “transaction” and more “training sidekick.”) Tammy’s been known to: ✅ Fix LMS access faster than you can say “I swear that was the right password” ✅ Help organizations uncover hidden savings like a career-development detective ✅ Skip the detours—Tammy points you straight to the courses that actually get you where you want to go. ✅ Deliver warm, human
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With CFTEA, you can earn up to 90 of the 120 credits needed for a Bachelor’s in Business Administration with a Banking major—at a fraction of the cost. Start small, take it step by step with CFTEA, and before you know it, you’re holding that degree without the mountain of debt. Why pay more when you don’t have to? Start with CFTEA, finish with confidence. Discover how: https://cftea.org/academics/degrees/
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