The ELBA Higher Education team work alongside the University careers teams to support students by providing them with a range of opportunities to connect with professionals in the City and Canary Wharf.  

We spoke to Shika, a recent graduate from one of our partner Universities, who has attended a number of ELBA’s Higher Education activities and discusses how this has helped improve her employability skills.

Which ELBA programmes have you participated in and describe the benefits/skills you gained as a result?
I have been lucky enough to attend several ELBA programmes such as insight days, a CV clinic and a mock interview with business volunteers.

The insight days were very helpful as they were my first experiences of being in a professional corporate setting and provided me with a better understanding of various firms.

I attended a mock interview session at a really good time, a week before I had a real interview at Deloitte. The mock interview allowed me to get an insight into how interviewers think and what they look for in ideal candidates. The experience left me feeling a lot more confident for my real interview as I had a better idea of what to expect. My interview at Deloitte went really well and I ended up getting onto the graduate scheme!

In June, Shikha was invited as a guest speaker at UBS’s strategy day, which included highlighting UBS’ Community Affairs programme and informing Managing Directors about the ways they can get involved in employee volunteering activity and encourage their teams to do the same.

Tell us a bit more about how that experience was.
I delivered a presentation to 50 of UBS’s Managing Directors, which of course was a little daunting; however, public speaking is a skill which I really wanted to develop so this event gave me a perfect opportunity to step out of my comfort zone!

What are you up to now?
I have just graduated from Queen Mary University of London with a degree in Economics and Finance and I am currently enjoying my final long summer holiday until I start working at Deloitte in September. I will be joining the Audit and Assurance division specifically in Banking and Capital Markets; I am looking forward to meeting other like-minded graduates and working with a large range of clients.

Would you recommend ELBA’s programmes to other students and graduates? Why?
I would 100% recommend ELBA’s programmes. I have benefitted from so many of their events as they have provided me with industry insights, experiences in a professional environment and helped me to network with business professionals.

If you are a student at one of our partner universities (University of Greenwich, University of East London, Queen Mary University or London Metropolitan) and would like to get involved with any of our programmes, contact educationworks@elba-1.org.uk or call 020 7068 6960.