She adds that consumer affairs examiners, whose job requires a knowledge of complicated laws and regulations, often have a law degree or prior compliance experience with a commercial bank. Regardless of the area of specialization, all examiners undergo a rigorous training program. A new examiner at the Minneapolis Fed spends the first one to two weeks in orientation before joining a field examination team. But during that first year, examiners also will spend from 15 percent to 25 percent of their time in training, according to Pat Nowak, the Minneapolis Fed's training coordinator, who is also an experienced examiner. For example, prior to enrolling in the Loan Analysis school, an examiner would need to complete 80 hours of independent pre-course work.
Many courses end with an exam of up to two hours.
This information is fed to the Federal Reserve Board's training staff in Washington, D.C., which schedules all classes and instructors. The training center's in-house staff of 15 includes a commissioned examiner, two training staff with master's degrees and a doctoral candidate in adult education. We have more students than, for example, William and Mary College, with 5,000 students. In '96 the Fed's training classes will serve about 6,000 students in a number of basic and advanced schools. While class spaces go first to Fed personnel, other agency staff, state examiners and foreign central bank personnel may fill unused slots.