Lloyds Banking Group has unveiled the UK's first specialist agricultural banking internships.
In conjunction with the the Royal Agricultural University, it is aimed at penultimate year agricultural students and post-graduates.
The scheme is being offered as part of Lloyds Banking Group’s wider Mid Markets and SME business banking internship programme.
Starting in 2017, it offers a 10-week paid summer placement within the agricultural banking team that could lead on to a two-year graduate programme, which starts the following September.
Andrew Naylor, head of Lloyds Bank Agriculture, says the bank looks to recruit people with a strong technical or economic knowledge of farming.
'Knowledge of agri-business into practice'
He says these skills need to meet the requirements of its large client base throughout the industry and its supply chain, and that developing this scheme was a good way of securing the correct skills.
He says: “We remain committed to supporting the agriculture sector, and while we continue to put talented people coming into our team from other sectors through an intensive agricultural training course, we also want to recruit direct from the industry.
“The attributes we are looking for are mainly strong people skills and numerical reasoning. Candidates should also be self-motivated and set high standards, and be on track to obtain a 2:2 degree or better.”
Rita Walsh, head of the Business and Entrepreneurship Centre at the Royal Agricultural University, says she is delighted that Lloyds Bank has created this opportunity for students to gain work experience within the agriculture team.
She says: “This will allow students to gain valuable skills and to put their knowledge of agri-business into practice. We anticipate that some of them will decide that a career in agricultural banking is something they wish to pursue and hopefully become part of Andrew’s team in the future.”
