Every year, UBS, a renowned financial services company and global bank, invites a select few Year 11 students from around NSW to participate in one of their two esteemed courses: the Finance Academy and the Young Women’s Leadership Academy. In the holidays, I had the privilege of being one of the fifty participants in UBS’s Young Women’s Leadership Academy, an enriching course catered toward “emerging female leaders” with an interest in finance. The three full and intensive days of field-based overviews, workshops, activities, guest speakers and interactive pitches successfully provided us with leadership and communication skills, enhanced knowledge and appreciation of financial services and offered many valuable networking opportunities. The program also provided the opportunity for girls across 30 different schools around NSW to interact and connect with.
At UBS’s Sydney office in Chifley Square, girls were given a taste of what working in a corporate environment was like, learning what a typical day looks like for people across a wide range of fields, further enabling girls to narrow down their interests within the financial sector. While the course focussed on encouraging young women to pursue careers in the finance industry – an industry with historically low numbers of female participants – the leadership and communication coaches employed by UBS work with many large companies and brands to achieve global recognition, thus providing students with an arsenal of skills and strategies that will set them apart across many scenarios.
Overall, this course was an invaluable experience and is just one of many ways in which young ladies can take steps toward building their professional future.
Ava J
Year 11