FINANCIAL INDUSTRY JOBS SINGAPORE
Singapore - Despite reports of retrenchment, fresh graduates are making a beeline for jobs in the financial industry.
Citibank said it has received 50% more job applications than before, or as many as 4,500 from fresh graduates. Previously, it received 2,500 to 3,000 applications from hopeful graduates hoping to get a job under the management associate programme which usually takes in 20 to 30 people.
Similarly, Standard Chartered Bank said that the number of applications from fresh graduates has doubled this year. Typically, it received several thousands of applications yearly.
D. M. Arulraj, Southeast Asia regional head of human resources of Standard Chartered Bank says that the banks has hired about 180 graduates so far this year.
The bank has taken in 38 graduates for its one-year banking associate programme specifically for high potential fresh graduates who are placed into job specific roles.
"This programme offers a structured career path for the graduates and they go through skills and product training necessary for their role to help them develop their careers," says Arulraj.
Also, about 70 fresh graduates will be joining the bank next Monday under the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) scheme, which subsidises graduates' allowances over the next one to two years to encourage financial institutions to take them in. They will undergo one-month structural training focusing on the fundamental knowledge of the bank's products and the financial industry.
The bank has also hired an additional 50 graduates this year, with most of them in sales.
DBS Bank has about 1,200 applications from fresh graduates for jobs under the MAS scheme, which only has 80 positions, says Edna Koh, a bank spokesperson.
"DBS supports what MAS wants to achieve through this initiative," says Koh.
Positions concerning consumer banking, technology and operations, investment banking and wealth management are offered across the departments, according to a report by AsiaOne.
"We are offering around 80 positions and we have hired approximately half the number already," says Koh.
"In addition, we will continue to hire fresh graduates for our management associate programme this year. The size of the intake has not been finalised, but in the past, DBS typically recruits about 50 graduates for this programme each year."
OCBC Bank also said that it is taking in fresh graduates under the MAS scheme.
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