CISI’s Education Trust Awards 2017: Inspiring futures

Nilukshi Jayawardena receiving her certificate from CISI Chief Executive Simon Culhane Chartered FCSI

The Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment (CISI) launched its inaugural Global Education Trust Awards in an effort to help young people build on recognition, employability, connections and opportunities in the financial services profession. The CISI Educational Trust is established and funded by the not-for-profit CISI, which uses its funds solely to support educational initiatives in the public interest. 

The Awards celebrate excellence amongst undergraduate and postgraduate level students, inspiring futures and developing employable skillsets amongst young professionals. The purpose of the Awards is to support the ambitions of each winner providing them opportunities and experiences from the global financial landscape. 

Four winners were selected from Sri Lanka, India, Singapore and Spain and were offered a week’s work experience in leading financial services firms in London. The competition was open to undergraduate and postgraduate students in CISI global partner universities. The universities were invited to nominate students based on excellence in university projects or examinations. Although, the process for nomination differed across regions, it included either/or a combination of submission of a personal statement, an 800-word essay, interviews with the judging panel and presentations.

In Sri Lanka, eight undergraduate students from the Management and Finance faculties from the three major state universities in the Western Province presented their findings on the research topic: Did the governments get it right in the global financial crisis? Were banks really ‘too big to fail’? The judging panel constituted of notable, well-respected individuals in Sri Lanka’s financial services sector; Nihal Fonseka Member of the Monetary Board and President of the CISI National Advisory Council, Nandika Buddipala – Chief Financial Officer – Commercial Bank of Ceylon Plc, Senaka Kekiriwaragoda – Managing Director at NDB Zephyr Partners Lanka Ltd. 

Nilukshi Jayawardena, from the University of Colombo was selected as the winner from Sri Lanka based on her ability to articulate logic behind argument, a good flow of justification and clear conduct of language and delivery of the presentation. Nilukshi recently completed her Degree in Bachelors in Business Administration (BBA) in Finance, and is employed by NDB Investment Bank Ltd. She took up her week’s work placement with the Union Bank of India in London. 

Commenting on her week’s work experience she said, “I feel this opportunity will give me a once in a lifetime chance to enhance my practical knowledge, which will be pivotal for enabling me to improve my employability. I’m looking forward to learning about the provision of financial services in a foreign jurisdiction, including obtaining know-how on how financial products are priced, pitched/marketed and the organisational culture.”

Kevin Moore, Chartered MCSI, CISI Director of Global Business Development said: “Each of our four achievers has worked extremely hard to get through the various stages of this process to gain their work placement and trip to London. The firms they worked with were pleased about the fresh perspectives that these young graduates had to offer. They were commended for their confidence and passion to learn.”

“The training they received has offered them useful insight into working in the financial services sector in London, an experience they can share in their home countries and use in their day-to-day work or studies.”