Interns tap into full-time tech roles at NCB

The innovative internship collaboration between The University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona, and NCB’s Enterprise Information Management (EIM) Unit is continuing to be a hotspot for incubating local tech talent, while also transforming the paths of three exceptional participants who now hold prestigious full-time tech roles at NCB.

Diving into the tech realm, these thriving alumni include Taffeya Dunkley, Bradley Thompson, and Shaun Jennings. Being full-time employees in NCB’s EIM Unit, which is celebrating its fifth year, has now provided them with the perfect platform for their talents to flourish. With the mandate of sifting through and managing high volumes of data, the EIM Unit boasts agile data scientists dedicated to serving the data needs of all divisions across the organisation.

For 23-year-old Jennings, this experience has been a revelation.

“The programme not only let me apply my technical skills, but also honed vital soft skills like teamwork and delivering impactful presentations,” Jennings shared. During his 2021 internship, he transformed raw data into valuable insights for NCB’s payments business. His inquisitive mindset was instrumental in developing interactive dashboards that brought clarity to complex data-sets.

Jennings’ innovative spirit thrived, proving crucial in his solo project focused on collecting data from small- and medium-size businesses (MSMEs). A project that bridged data gaps and pinpointed potential clients, this is just one example of how the internship has provided tangible real-world impact.

Thompson, 29, echoes the transformative experience. Collaborating with fellow interns, he immersed himself into various digital aspects, from UI/UX design to data analysis. Thompson’s hands-on journey has also helped him to develop effective communication, teamwork, and the art of presenting insights confidently to senior leaders.

“The EIM internship programme aims to provide job opportunities for future data analysts and scientists while enhancing their skills to a global standard,” said Nicole Brown, senior assistant vice president for business and data architecture at NCB. “As part of our commitment to becoming a top-tier financial institution, we evaluated the local data and analytics talent. Identifying significant skill gaps, we introduced the internship programme in 2018 to address these challenges.”

With a year-long curriculum, the first part of the programme offers intensive training in soft skills, business understanding, problem-framing, data-understanding, and technical skills, such as data manipulation, data visualisation, and machine learning. Interns then immerse themselves into a nine-month rotation across the organisation, giving them an opportunity to gain further knowledge on how the business works, contribute to value creation, and build their confidence by interacting with various stakeholders including senior management. At the end of the programme, based on the intern’s performance, they are offered a full-time contract, where they can further their development through the company’s analyst development framework, along with additional learning opportunities presented by NCB’s corporate learning campus.

The organisation continues to celebrate the achievements of former interns who have transitioned into employees, such as Dunkley, who shared, “I’m here to prove that gender is no barrier to excelling in the tech world.”

Her journey is a testament to the programme’s core objectives.

In addition to the EIM Internship Programme, NCB’s summer internship has welcomed a vibrant cohort of 58 participants this year, who are working in various areas of the business across the organisation. The 2023 programme, which began in July, will continue until September 1, 2023.