Department of Accounting and Finance partnership with Barclays
The Department of Accounting and Finance launched a pilot programme in conjunction with Barclays – The Barclays Finance Experience - in late 2023. Thirty-four students from 2nd and 3rd year undergraduate accounting and finance courses were chosen to take part in this pilot, which ran over six weeks at the Barclays campus in Glasgow. The experience was led by Andy Hall, Director of Financial Control at Barclays, together with Strathclyde staff.
The programme gave students practical insights on the day-to-day operations of banking and provided the opportunity to work on cases and employability skills in preparation for future internships and graduate roles. At the end of the six-week programme, Barclays hosted a closing award ceremony for the students where they were presented with certificates followed by a networking event where the students had the opportunity to make connections to help them in their future careers.
This pilot was an overall great success, and the Department hopes to be able to work with Barclays over the coming years to allow more accounting and finance students to enjoy and learn from the experience.
Andy Hall explained, ‘We were delighted to host the undergraduates from Strathclyde Business School for this six-week programme, which was the first ‘Barclays Finance Experience’. They represented the University and the Business School extremely well.
“The students’ commitment, engagement and positive attitude was outstanding throughout. Their presentations were excellent, and I believe they have shared a lot of positive feedback on the experience with their tutors and on their LinkedIn posts.
“Craig McLaughlin from the Department of Accounting and Finance and I partnered in the design of this initiative, and my thanks also go to Professor Andrew Marshall for his belief, encouragement and support without which the programme would not have achieved the same level of success.
“Glasgow is of strategic importance to Barclays, and we want to attract the best talent in Scotland from the top business schools. It is our ambition that this talent is channelled into our Early Careers pipeline and generates our future stars.
“It’s important to highlight that the programme is not just for aspiring accountants; it covers all aspects of the bank’s activities and spotlights the variety of careers on offer. We were particularly pleased at the number of students from the programme who applied for Barclays Summer Internships across different areas including Finance, Risk, Operations and Retail Banking. We look forward to running the programme again in Autumn 2024.”
Published: 24 January 2024
