WILLEMSTAD - All across the region eager young women filed into the branches and offices of regional bank CIBC FirstCaribbean to “fill” a variety of positions for one day recently celebrating the International Women’s day 2019.
Tanisha Cannegieter, a sophomore studying Commercieel Medewerker Bank en Verzekeringswezen at the College of the Dutch Caribbean and Gilianis Crispulo a Senior majoring in Bank- en verzekeringswezen at the University of the Dutch Caribbean joined meetings with senior managers and executives or went on the frontlines with retail staff to get a feel for the various roles performed by the bank’s 3000 employees, seventy per cent of whom are women, like them.
The “job shadow” was one of the bank’s key activities across its 16-member regional footprint to mark International Women’s Day observed around the world on that date. Both Cannegieter as Crispulo were engaged and “fully participated and had a good input” during meetings. The job shadow was intended to show the students that there was a whole lot more to banking that just the familiar retail functions.
Ms. Colette Delaney, the first female Chief Executive Officer of CIBC FirstCaribbean said while the bank was proud of the number of females serving at very high levels, there was still room for improvement especially at the senior executive level. She added, however, that she was “proud of the support system we have put in place to help our women develop and rise to whatever level of our organization they may aspire to”.
Both students acknowledged that the day shadowing CIBC FirstCaribbean female Senior Executives provided them with a whole new perspective on possibilities within banking and awakened their ambition to one day also take the seat as a senior bank executive.