Congratulations Chan Kar Yee!

During the graduation ceremony on FSTEP program.

By Faresa Azmi

Financial Sector Talent Enrichment Programme (FSTEP) is an initiative by the financial industry players in collaboration with Bank Negara Malaysia to produce highly trained industry professionals. FSTEP is aimed at attracting high calibre students who have recently graduated from local and foreign institutions of higher learning to join the financial industry – banks, insurance, Islamic banks and Takaful. The programme is managed by Asian Banking School (formerly Institute Bank-Bank Malaysia) in collaboration with Bank Negara Malaysia.

FSTEP, a brainchild of the Governor of Bank Negara Malaysia Tan Sri Dato’ Sri Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz, is targeting to train high calibre graduates from local and foreign universities to develop new talent for the Malaysian financial services industry.

Heartiest congratulations to Chan Kar Yee who being a 1^st KDU student from School of Business by completed FSTEP programme. She currently working with OCBC Bank with Compliance, Risk and Prevention Unit.

“The Financial Sector Talent Enrichment Programme (FSTEP) provides an avenue for fresh graduates with or without Banking & Finance background to step foot into the financial sector by learning from experienced trainers and Prominent Leaders in the industry. Most importantly, FSTEP equips graduates like us not only with technical skills, but with other skillset such as Public Speaking, Negotiation, Personal Grooming and English”, said Kar Yee.

The duration of the training is one-year, the enhanced programme comprises a 5-month technical training at FSTEP and 7-month on-the-job-training with the sponsoring financial institutions. The probation period be synchronised with the 7-month on-the-job-training to ensure qualified participants can be absorbed sooner as permanent employee with the sponsoring institutions.

Kar Yee commented on the FSTEP programme by assessing “All participants will be assessed by taking a module of Executive Bankers qualification – ‘Banking Operations and Professional Ethics’ which will be conducted independently by the Asian Banking School”.

During her 4 months internship in Alliance Bank, she was posted in the Audit Confirmation Unit of Group Operations. “What I have learned from that experience is your CGPA will not matter much once you have gotten past the interviews. What matters is not how well you did in University, but how well and how quickly you can adapt to the working environment. A month before my internship ended, I was offered a 12 months contract in Alliance Bank within Group Operations itself, which has given me an opportunity to learn more about the company culture and gain more experience in the industry”, explained her journey during her internship programme.

Chan Kar Yee, who graduated from Bachelor of Business (Hons) with Law always wanting to work in financial sector 2016. Her best business law programme during her student days was Contract Law. Contracts plays an important role in all industries. No matter where you end up in the future, having Contractual Law knowledge would be beneficial. I was fortunate enough to have had great lecturers that I look up to throughout my course which have motivated and inspired me in many ways”.

In her future, FSTEP has given me an opportunity to venture into the banking and finance industry. I have gained an insightful overview of the financial services sector and during the streamlining programme.

According to her, the soft skills sessions are useful in developing my self-confidence and communication skills.It helped me to tackle my fear of public speaking. It has certainly boost my ability to share my ideas with others.

In conclusion, undergoing the training programme at FSTEP has been fun, entertaining and most importantly it has given me priceless insight into how the real world works especially banking. As a person who is not entirely acquainted with the business practices in Malaysia, FSTEP is providing me with the best platform to learn and grow so that I can compete in the international arena and emerge as nothing less than EXCELLENT!