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Community College of Rhode Island
Sovereign Bank calls on CCRI for help in creation of bilingual workforce
When Sovereign Bank decided to create a new bilingual call center and consumer lending team in East Providence, its regional CEO Steve Issa turned to his alma mater, CCRI, for help.
At a press conference at One Financial Plaza earlier this month, Sovereign officials were joined by Governor Carcieri and Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Chief Juana Horton in outlining this expansion of services to Rhode Island’s Latino community.
CCRI was identified as a key partner in recruiting employees and possibly training them. As a guest speaker at the press conference, CCRI President Ray Di Pasquale said, “This sounds like a wonderful program, not only because it’s innovative, but because it’s necessary. The Hispanic population in Rhode Island is growing by leaps and bounds, as you know, and we see it everyday at CCRI. In fact, CCRI is one of the first places Spanish-speaking people in the area seek out when they want to improve their education level or improve their workforce skills, so [Sovereign] picked the right partner when you asked CCRI to join you.”
He also recognized Issa as an alumni success story, and called community colleges “a tremendous training ground for the banking industry.”
