It’s been a busy few month’s for the Graduate Programme Team since we launched the recruitment drive for the 2021-2023 Financial Services Graduate Programme back in February whilst simultaneously planning for the next Fast Track Data/AI programme.
This year’s recruitment campaign was overseen by Adam, our Programme Co-ordinator and it was all done virtually.
The pandemic has had a significant impact on the jobs market in the UK, with graduate opportunities being hit particularly hard. It made this year’s programme launch even more important for us and we are proud to be working with so many forward thinking organisations who genuinely value the graduate talent pool.
We received a huge response, with more than 400 Graduates applying for the Programme. What stood out to us compared to previous years was the number of graduates applying from Welsh Universities.
Almost half of the applicants had studied in Wales, and it was encouraging to see such a high number of talented individuals looking to stay and start their career in Financial Services here. Nurturing Wales’ graduate the talent pool has been a driver of ours since the inception of the programme and is perhaps one of the more positive outcomes of the pandemic in that it seems more graduates are seeking out opportunities closer to home rather than leaving Cardiff for roles in London.
A new feature of this year’s assessment centres was the launch of a pre-assessment day workshop. Again, these were held virtually but they offered graduates the opportunity to hear from the Programme team on how best to showcase themselves on the day of the assessments. We also involved previous and current graduate alumni who spoke about their own experiences of both the interview process and the programme itself.
These workshops proved to be really beneficial for all the graduates who attended, helping them to feel more comfortable on the day and enabling them to get a better understanding of what the assessors would be looking for.
The calibre of talent that applied for this year’s Financial Services Programme was outstanding. All those involved in the recruitment process including our team, the employers and University of Gloucestershire have commented on the standard of our applicants.
We are delighted to confirm that 37, diverse and extremely talented graduates have now accepted the offer to start the Programme in September. Delivering a programme that is inclusive and accessible to people of all backgrounds and beliefs has always been a key driver for us and we’re so pleased to be working with organisations who share in our values.
We have a diverse range of placements on offer including: Marketing – Research Assistant, Risk & Compliance, Retail Mortgages, Retail Operations, Digital Project Coordinator, Finance Shared Services, ALM – Treasury, Marketing & Product Services so our graduates will be able to gain a rich a varied experience during the two years.
A huge thanks to everyone involved in the recruitment campaign and congratulations to the Graduates joining us in September.
We’ll be launching the first stage of applications for the Fast Track Data/AI Programme very soon so watch this space.