‘Students must imbibe special skills to be strong and fit'

Banking in India in the near future would undergo a sea change and today's youngsters who want to pursue careers in this sector must imbibe special skills to be “strong and fit” to face future challenges, Mr K. Devananda Upadhyaya, General Manager, Syndicate Bank, said here.

Delivering a lecture “R U bank skilled”, organised by the BL Club and sponsored by Syndicate Bank for the students of C.B. Bhandari Jain College, he said that a bank branch would be like a super market and provide a host of financial services under one roof in the near future.

“A bank you will be working in future would be a branchless one and an accountant would be almost a non-entity and, hence, you need to hone your skills and acquire special skill sets especially marketing or sales to be able to create a bright future for yourselves,” he said.

A bank in future would not be just known as “safe keepers of money” but move over as financial services centre offering insurance, mutual funds and a host of other services.

Mr Upadhyaya said that the banking sector had successfully weathered the global financial slowdown on the back of robust economy, a stable retail deposit base, prudent regulatory environment, credit quality and better risk management practices.

career in banking

This was a matter of great pride as many financial institutions in the US, and Europe went bust because they were private enterprises, he pointed out.

Urging the students to take up a career in banking, he said, “A huge opportunity exists in the banking sector and according to reports, the sector may offer around five lakh-six lakh jobs in the next two or three years as recruitments have not happened after 1986.

“My own bank may need about 25,000 in the next few years. However, competitive and creative persons will land these jobs and they must be willing to work in small and medium-sized towns.”

Opportunities

Mr Upadhyaya said that opportunities existed in all banking activities such as retail, personal, corporate, merchant and rural banking. He also dwelt on para banking activities, evolving trends in banking, functioning, selection processes, what banks expect from prospective candidates, remuneration and growth. He told the students to hone their soft and hard skills which would become important in the future.

“You need to hone your information and communication technology skills as banks are moving towards core-banking services. But, IT is not everything in banking and, hence, you need to refine your soft skills too to be able to have excellent relation with your customers,” Mr Upadhyaya added.

Mr S. Ganesh, Customer Relations Manager, Syndicate Bank, said the bank's two products, SyndYuva and SyndVidya have been tailored to meet the needs of the youth.

Ms. Asha Ganesh, Principal, C.B. Bhandari Jain College, was present.

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