Standard Bank launches free virtual internships for students

South Africa's Standard Bank is launching a free virtual internships initiative, enabling students from across the country to gain financial industry skills and experience.

The bank has put together a series of programmes, the first of which take around five hours and can be completed at the students' own pace.

The programmes offer video-guided training for skills in job searching, business communication and networking, personal branding, interview preparation, and more. From August, students will also be able to enrol in programmes covering retail and investment banking, software development, engineering, and data science.

Once completed successfully, students will receive certificates that they can add to their resumes.

Maymoona Ismail, head, youth development, Standard Bank South Africa, says: "The Virtual Experiences Programmes now enables young individuals - whether they know how they want to use their existing qualifications or they’re still exploring - to access quality training, industry insights, and certification completely online and at no cost."