A group of 22 Pennsylvania college students recently participated in the first Next Generation Bankers Academy, a hands-on learning experience for students interested in careers in banking or financial regulation.
Participating students attended sessions with local community bank leaders and financial regulators and spent full days on site at Orrstown Bank, Mid Penn Bank, and Centric Bank. Students heard from executives from Ephrata National Bank, First Citizens Bank, Bank of Bird-in-Hand, Jonestown Bank and Trust, Fulton Bank, Mars Bank, and Victory Bank as well as financial regulators from the Pennsylvania Department of Banking and Securities Policy Director and the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.
Students learned about the daily operations of banks and networked with banking professionals. They also learned about workforce development issues and job-searching from the PA State System of Higher Education and Mosteller and Associates.
The five-day program was organized by the Pennsylvania Bankers Association, the Pennsylvania Association of Community Bankers and the Pennsylvania Department of Banking and Securities. It was offered free to students and was underwritten by the participating banks and regulator.
“We believe the Next Generation Bankers Academy program is scalable, addressing similar challenges to other sectors of financial services and government oversight,” Tim Arthun, policy director with the Department of Banking and Securities wrote in a blog post. “The Next Generation Bankers Academy could be a model for how Pennsylvania financial services industries and government can work together to meet the challenges of succession planning the changing nature of financial services.”