State finance minister Amit Mitra today urged banks to introduce job-oriented courses with 100 per cent guaranteed placements in collaboration with universities by taking a cue from Bandhan Bank that has started a postgraduate diploma course in banking and finance along with the Maulana Abul Kalam Azad University of Technology (MAKAUT).

Mitra said he would place the issue at the next State Level Banking Committee’s meeting. “The courses should guarantee 100 per cent placement and give scope to the financially weaker students to avail the Students’ Credit Card scheme. They should learn from the model that has been conceived by Bandhan Bank and implement it in their banks as well,” said Mitra while virtually inaugurating the ‘NextGen Post Graduate Diploma Course in Banking and Finance’.

He said that if all banks start such an initiative then it would help in employment generation that has been the main focus of chief minister Mamata Banerjee.

“This one-year course is unique as it is for the first time in the state that a banker has collaborated with a university to come up with such a course for students aspiring to join the banking sector. Secondly, the course curriculum that has been prepared is extremely well as it covers all the banking nitty-gritty with a blend of knowledge and practical skills. Thirdly, all students would be recruited after completing the course,” said Mitra adding that students are issued certificates jointly by Bandhan Bank and MAKAUT.

It is a fully residential course and the total fee is Rs 3.5 lakh but currently, it is Rs 2 lakh since food and lodging fees are not being charged. MD and CEO Chandra Shekhar Ghosh stressed on rural banking and said only 11 per cent of branches are in rural areas though 70 per cent population resides there.

“Through the course, we are trying to prepare the mindset of the students to work in villages so that banking services can be reached in rural areas,” said Ghosh. Ghosh said that a new training centre is coming up in Santiniketan which is likely to start operating from early 2022. “Currently, this is the 10th batch which has 60 students, of whom six have availed loans under the Students Credit Card scheme. Till now 604 students had enrolled in the previous nine batches of the course and got recruited by the bank,” he said