This eSchool kickoff session sets the stage for your learning experience by previewing what to expect throughout your educational journey and outlining the key steps required for training completion and, if applicable, America’s Credit Unions Credit Union Enterprise Risk Certification (CUERC) designation recertification. You’ll also learn how to identify your immediate next steps and review the Resource Guide.

Learning objectives:

• Describe what to expect during your educational journey
• Outline the essential steps to recertification
• Identify and plan your next steps
• Review the Resource Guide

NCUA’s 2026 supervisory priorities explicitly flag how credit unions incorporate risks into strategic decision-making as an examination focus area. However, many financial services organizations continue to operate without fully developed ERM processes in place. In this session, David will walk through an ERM maturity and strategy integration diagnostic, along with a strategic key risk indicator (KRI) design approach, to help participants evaluate the maturity of their own risk programs.

Learning objectives

• Understand ERM Maturity Models
• Examine the relationship between ERM and strategic planning
• Develop an understanding of strategic key risk indicators
• Diagnose your own credit union’s risk maturity level

Interchangeably referred to as “effective”, “credible”, and “critical” challenge, the role of risk managers to present a potentially new view can be difficult. In this candid conversation, Scott Hood interviews Jackie Gilbert about her work building a risk program, establishing effective challenge, developing strategic influence, embedding risk management into business processes, and encouraging engagement.

Learning objectives

• Understand the role of risk managers in carrying out effective challenge
• Explore how governance cultures foster independent critical challenge 
• Develop an understanding of how to take ERM beyond risk measurement
• Learn how one credit union built an effective, strategic risk function

Different organizations have different tolerances for risk. It is the role of risk managers to understand the risk and return trade-offs to help manage a credit union’s approach to achieving their goals. In this session, Scott Hood walks learners through the considerations impacting risk appetite, how to develop a clear picture of your organization’s risk appetite, approaches for qualitively monitoring of risk appetite, and setting metric tolerances.

Learning objectives

• Build an understanding of risk appetite as a concept
• Develop a plan for developing strategically informed risk appetite statements
• Learn how to utilize risk appetite in decision-making
• Understand how to monitor adherence to risk appetite statements

Risk managers have a unique challenge: They touch nearly every area of a credit union, but they directly own very little, if anything. As participants work through the Advanced eSchool, this module explores how strategic positioning, risk appetite, strategic foresight, risk culture, and governance can be combined into a comprehensive risk function that supports organizational goals effectively.

Learning objectives

• Build an understanding of how a risk function business unit can be structured
• Navigate the integration of risk into operations
• Learn methods for aggregating disparate risk assessments
• Understand skills that help communicate risk to a variety of audiences

Risk management, no matter how well managed, can be made exponentially more difficult if the culture of an organization doesn’t support risk-intelligent decision culture. In this session, Jeff Owen discusses the elements of an effective risk culture, the importance of psychological safety, and methods for assessing where an organization stands – then explores how to apply those insights in practice.

Learning objectives

• Diagnose how your organization’s risk culture is operating 
• Understand how to shift culture at every organizational level
• Create a plan for how to build roadmaps around existing leading indicators.

Most risk programs are headline-driven, assessing known risks. Building a repeatable methodology for evaluating emerging risks will help create a more defensible emerging risk perspective that can credibly inform strategic priorities. In this session, Michael Cannes explores the gap between signal detection and institutional response where losses tend to occur, as well as how to build an organizational scanning capability.

Learning objectives

• Learn the foresight methodology of identifying emerging risks
• Apply strategic foresight to two emerging risks 
• Build a plan for how to operationalize strategic foresight

This quick session provides learners with next steps, key resources, recertification details, and a moment to celebrate their completion of the training.

Learning objectives

• Review next steps
• Identify resources for continued support
• Confirm understanding of recertification next steps
• Celebrate your achievement

This quick session provides learners with next steps, key resources, recertification details, and a moment to celebrate their completion of the training.

Learning objectives

• Review next steps
• Identify resources for continued support
• Confirm understanding of recertification next steps
• Celebrate your achievement