This article is about Banking and Finance
Why should first-time job seekers consider banking?
By NIIT Editorial
Published on 21/04/2021
6 minutes
COVID-19 has dealt a severe blow to the ambitions of millions of professionals who were on track to achieve their aspirations. The lockdown crumbled a growing economy such as India with years of government efforts to uplift people from poverty being undone. Here are a couple of statistics to prove our point. Reeling from the pain of national-level lockdowns, the unemployment rate in India went up to 24% in April 2020.
Through gradual re-locks, the situation improved by January 2021, when the same statistic was down to 6%, yet massive steps need to be taken to avoid the damage done.
While learning remotely has been a challenge for many under-graduates, there are other concerns facing the youth that are vying for a stable future. Predisposed to take the grim situation for what it is, other factors while choosing an industry for employment include factors like the skill-gap, opportunities and their own inclination to grow.
Viewed from that standpoint, banking emerges as a clear option for first time job seekers. In this post, we’ll be sharing our views on why job seekers should consider banking as a foundation for their professional future.
Each year public and private banking institutions conduct written examinations to fill vacancies ranging from junior associates to bank probationary officers. There are a total of 12 public sector banks and 21 private sector banks in India as of writing (2021). Along with this, there are 46 foreign banks, 56 Regional Rural Banks, and 10 small finance banks presently operating in the country.
In 2018, private sector banks employed about 420, 285, 000 people. The National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) projected that the banking industry would need 1.6 million personnel to join the workforce on top of the current lot by 2022 for effective functioning.
An emerging pillar of the industry that is making the headlines for the right reasons is Payment Banks. These are digital banks without any regional branches and accepting deposits of up to 100,000 rupees.
The pre-covid times were focused on recruiting talent that catered to the in-person needs of customers visiting the branches. But the pandemic has ushered a wave of digital transformation that is fast unravelling itself. Mobile banking is the new epicentre of customer activity. This polar shift in the infrastructural demands mandates the need of personnel whose expertise is operating digitally.
A preconceived notion that influenced the masses was that the industry belonged to those typically graduating from a scholarly background in commerce or accounting. While subject matter expertise is one thing, new-age employees have to have a predilection for topics like artificial intelligence, blockchain, analytics, cybersecurity and machine learning.
Corporate banking and investment banking are other lateral branches of the banking sector that require highly-skilled, white collar professionals. Financial technology or Fintech is continuing to grow and will fuel the growth of digital payments with a CAGR of 20% by 2023.
Online lending platforms such as Lendingkart promise quick disbursal of loans to those desperate in need. They cut out the middlemen and process payments in relatively shorter amounts of time by doing away with redundant formalities. Fintech enterprises will add further diversification in BFSI employment market such as risk analyst,
Studies estimate that upto 2/3rd workforce of a private banking enterprise consists of officer-grade personnel while 1/3rd consists of clerical grade associates.
The youth in tier-2 and tier-3 cities are more aware and interested in a bank job than ever. All they need is an opportunity to enter the financial ecosystem. NIIT offers students exactly that with a bevy of BFSI courses the prime example of which is the Post Graduate Diploma is Sales and Relationship Banking. This online program is a tie-up between NIIT and the ICICI Bank. Bundled with NIIT’s placement assurance services, the curricula taught at this BFSI program ensures value addition in terms of customer relationship building and places passing candidates as value bankers in the ICICI bank.
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PG Diploma in Sales and Relationship Banking
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