Sco­tia­bank has host­ed fi­nan­cial plan­ning and re­sume writ­ing/in­ter­view tips work­shops for its schol­ar­ship re­cip­i­ents from the bank's pro­grammes with the Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies (UWI) and the Na­tion­al As­so­ci­a­tion of Ath­let­ics Ad­min­is­tra­tions of Trinidad and To­ba­go (NAAATT).

In a news re­lease yes­ter­day, Sco­tia­bank said the dri­ve was part of plan to help pre­pare the stu­dents for the world of work and fu­ture en­deav­ours.

The 2024 re­cip­i­ents of Sco­tia­bank’s schol­ar­ship/bur­sary pro­grammes were host­ed at the bank’s head of­fice for the work­shops.

Sco­tia­bank rep­re­sen­ta­tives from its fi­nance and hu­man re­source teams fa­cil­i­tat­ed the ses­sions, which were aimed at equip­ping the stu­dents with knowl­edge on bud­get­ing and sav­ings. Ad­di­tion­al­ly the schol­ar­ship re­cip­i­ents were giv­en tips for the job search process with re­sume writ­ing tips and mock in­ter­view demon­stra­tions.

One of the stu­dents, Ja­da Khan, a fi­nal-year stu­dent at UWI said, “It was one of the best things I be­lieve a uni­ver­si­ty stu­dent or new grad­u­ate could get. Be­fore, I felt so un­cer­tain about my fu­ture re­gard­ing my stu­dent loans, job ap­pli­ca­tions and in­ter­views. This un­cer­tain­ty about delv­ing in­to the pro­fes­sion­al and cor­po­rate world fes­tered in­to anx­i­ety and made me dis­cour­aged when think­ing of my fu­ture. Af­ter this work­shop, how­ev­er, I feel so much more con­fi­dent in find­ing a job and man­ag­ing my fi­nances in the fu­ture.”

Matthew Ram­nath, a first-year UWI stu­dent said, “This was an ex­cep­tion­al ex­pe­ri­ence that ex­ceed­ed my ex­pec­ta­tions. The ex­pert speak­ers made com­plex con­cepts easy to un­der­stand, em­pow­er­ing us with the knowl­edge to make in­formed fi­nan­cial de­ci­sions. The work­shop al­so of­fered prac­ti­cal tips on craft­ing com­pelling cov­er let­ters and prepar­ing for in­ter­views, en­sur­ing we left with a com­pre­hen­sive toolk­it for job hunt­ing.”

For over two decades, stu­dents at the UWI St. Au­gus­tine Cam­pus have re­ceived an­nu­al schol­ar­ships from Sco­tia­bank through the Sco­tia­bank Foun­da­tion. Every year, this pro­gramme as­sists 10 stu­dents with fi­nan­cial aid of $10,000 each.