GR
Since June, Piraeus Bank has been implementing training seminars aimed at its employees to ensure autonomous and equitable service for customers with disabilities. This initiative will continue through 2025.
To date, a total of 19 training sessions have been held in Athens and Thessaloniki, with participation from 
employees!
These seminars are conducted in small groups and last approximately eight hours, targeting employees from various branches across the country. The goal is to provide employees with essential knowledge and tools to better understand and support individuals with disabilities, ensuring their service experience is autonomous and equitable.
The first part focuses on visual, auditory, and mobility disabilities, coordinated by the NPO “Me Alla Matia” in collaboration with the Greek Sign Language Interpreters Agency “Hands Up.”
This segment provides a hands-on experience led primarily by trainers who are themselves individuals with disabilities. The second part addresses Down Syndrome, the autism spectrum, and intellectual disabilities. This segment is scientifically guided by experts from the organization “Ploes” (Company for Psychosocial Studies).
The training provided by the NPO “Me Alla Matia” is experiential, as the majority of the trainers are individuals with disabilities and professionals in the field with extensive experience. It involves dialogue, brainstorming, and hands-on activities, complemented by a digital game to interactively highlight the reality of living with a disability. The training is further enriched with videos showcasing the daily living skills of individuals with various impairments.
Each training session concludes with a discussion on best practices aimed at improving the experience of customers with disabilities in bank branches. Participants also provide feedback on how what they observed, learned, and experienced can be applied to their daily work and interactions with customers with disabilities.
