Shinhan Bank is doubling down on its digital drive by setting to groom 1,000 big data experts to accelerate digital transition and prepare for the future business centered on online banking.

The commercial lender will initiate Big Data (BD) 1000 project on Feb.24 to develop data experts inside the company, instead of recruiting talents from outside, according to industry sources on Thursday.

It said it found limitation in sending its employees to external training centers or tech startups to have them learn coding or open source, so it decided to establish a high-quality educational program on its own to educate employees internally.

The program mainly consists of practice, not theory, to allow trainees to use the knowledge immediately for their actual work. The curriculum will be customized to meet the different needs of each business division.

The experts who finish the course will be sent not only to its headquarters but also to nationwide branches. The bank said each branch will have at least one big data expert to provide support in establishing marketing strategies and better managing customers based on data.

All of the employees will take lectures at the first stage of the BD 100 project. The bank will then select 1,000 workers at the second stage to offer them opportunities to practice the theory with external instructors, and 50 of them will receive more intensive training at the third stage.

It aims to educate all of the workers to handle simple data utilization or analysis. Employees who complete the second stage training will become a data expert capable of analyzing big data and setting up business strategies according to their analysis.

By Kim Hye-soon and Choi Mira

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