19th September 2022 – Kampala, Uganda. Uganda Development Bank Ltd (UDB), the country’s National Development Finance Institution, has today launched its 2nd cohort of the Graduate Apprenticeship Program (GAP) that will provide hands-on skills development and job opportunities to nascent professionals in Uganda in a bid to create a pool for the Bank’s future talent needs.
The GAP is one of the Bank’s responses to developing its human capital and aims at creating sustainable, decent, and meaningful jobs for budding professionals, and this is in alignment with the government’s priority interventions stipulated in Vision 2040 and NDPIII.
“At UDB, we recognize that job creation is central to the national socio-economic development process and core to the country’s transformation. GAP is our response to this very pertinent aspect of this country,” said Joshua Allan Mwesiga, the Director Strategy and Corporate Affairs an UDB.
Key to note, UDB is the only development finance institution in Uganda and like all forward-looking organizations, continuity is key thus it becomes imperative to build a healthy stock of skills and talent to enable it to deliver its strategy.
“Given that there is no specialized institution for development finance training in the country, the Bank sought to contribute to development of these skills and competencies in the country by identifying high-achieving young individuals with high entrepreneurial and managerial promise, and by skilling them appropriately. At the end of their training, the apprentices will have acquired the relevant competencies required for various roles; those that will have successfully completed the program, demonstrated the right attitude, conduct and aptitude, will be absorbed into the Bank’s service,” Mr. Mwesiga adds.
Under the program, the Bank is calling for applications by graduates in specific fields of study, from the finalists will be identified following a structured and competitive selection. These areas of study are listed below;
Engineering with a bias in Mechanical, Software & Mechatronic Engineering, Irrigation and Agro-processing Engineering.
Data Management with a bias in Data Science, Analysis and/or Architecture, Mathematics; Computer Science and Physics.
Statistics and Quantitative Economics.
HR Management and Organizational Behavior.
Environmental Science.
Sustainable Development and related fields.
Legibility
Ugandan citizens that will have graduated with a Bachelor’s degree qualification in the academic fields noted above, from any reputable-recognized university.
CGPA of 4.0, and above
30 year of age and below
The deadline for receipt of application is 30th September 2022.
Background of GAP at UDB
In 2020, the Bank rolled out a successful inaugural Graduate Apprenticeship Program which registered 100% retention rates and superior on-joint performance ratings for all the four trainees that were recruited in 1st cohort.
The trainees included graduates in Engineering and Environmental Science. These were selected from a pool of numerous applicants who were subjected to different assessments and selected on merit. They underwent vigorous 1-year training program across all sections and operations of the Bank operations on rotation basis as well as attended other professional training including professional certification programs in Development Finance and Project Finance.
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