CFA Society Sydney has partnered with the Future of Females in Finance (“F3”), tech internships platform, to successfully create internship opportunities for female university students – and make the CFA charter more meaningful to the students. Most, if not all, interns are committed to registering for Level I of the CFA Program.
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CFA Society Sydney, led by the CFA Society Sydney Diversity Committee, piloted two internship programs in September-October 2019, supported by the F3 platform. The Committee selected two corporate sponsors – SuperRewards (an online shopping platform where retailers pay cash rewards into members’ superannuation) and ShareSight (an investment tracker platform for self-directed investors); and matched the sponsors with eligible female students. The internship programs were a resounding success and the CFA Sydney Diversity Committee plans to continue the partnership in 2020.
The participants were assigned a real business problem from the corporate sponsors, and groups of two-to-five girls, spent six weeks solving those problems using the online F3 tools and collaborating off-line. The programs culminated in formal board-room presentations to corporate sponsor executives, CFA Sydney Diversity Committee and board members, and investors.
The girls enjoyed learning through collaboration with other interns, working on real industry problems, and having exposure to and guidance from executive level professionals. CFA Sydney Diversity Committee members also made themselves available to mentor on problem-specific topics throughout the six week period: topics ranged from asset allocation through to self-directed wealth management expenses. The final group output was high quality and will be used by the respective sponsors.
The feedback from the corporate sponsors was extremely positive. They were impressed with the high standards displayed by the students and with CFA Society Sydney for actively working on its diversity agenda.
Louise Baker, Chair of the Diversity Committee, CFA Society Sydney said: “By working together on the pilots, F3 and the Diversity Committee have learned better practices for the next set of internship programs going into 2020. We look forward to building on the momentum from 2019 and engaging the next set of participants with the confidence that this is a fantastic opportunity for both females in finance and Corporate Sponsors. We hope to scale these opportunities.”
Participants were likewise grateful. Vaishnavi Rudra participant, SuperRewards intern commented: “The Future Females in Finance (F3) initiative supported by CFA society gave me and my team the opportunity to work closely with a start-up superannuation fund. The six week work experience program was a steep learning curve, as we were tasked with understanding Gender Lens Investing and how it could be implemented by the super fund. The project was relevant to my degree and made me strongly consider finance as a career path! I’m immensely grateful to F3 and CFA Society Sydney for putting together such an impactful program for young female students.”
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