Strathclyde graduate recognised by new award

Kerrie McKnight receiving IFSD student award from Jim Watson, director of financial services, Scottish Enterprise.

Newly graduated Kerrie McKnight has been recognised by a new awards programme for achieving top marks in her final exams.

Kerrie, 22, from Falkirk, achieved a first in her BA (Hons) Finance degree from Strathclyde and has been awarded £1,000 by the partners behind Glasgow's International Financial Services District (IFSD) - one of just four graduates from universities in Glasgow to be recognised in this way.

The awards programme has been established by the IFSD Partnership to recognise the wealth of talent graduating from Glasgow's four universities, prepared for careers in the financial services.

All the winning students were nominated by their individual universities as 'outstanding achievers' from courses designated for careers in financial services.

Kerrie is to start with PricewaterhouseCoopers this month (August).

Jim Watson, director of financial services, Scottish Enterprise, who presented the awards to the students on behalf of Glasgow's IFSD, said, "These awards recognise the great work being done by the universities in Glasgow and the relationships they have with the financial services sector to ensure a steady pipeline of well qualified graduates to work in the industry.

"The awards also recognise the breadth and depth of talent graduating from these universities which is, we believe, very reassuring for existing financial services companies in the city and prospective inward investors."

Since its launch in 2001, the IFSD has been developed by a partnership of the public and private sectors led by Scottish Enterprise and Glasgow City Council. The District has attracted over 15,000 financial sector jobs from some of the biggest names in global finance including Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan, Barclays Wealth, BNP Paribas, HSBC, esure, Direct Line, Tesco Bank and Odyssey Financial Technologies.