Beckoned by the booth’s prominent message, “Dream it, Achieve it, Do It,” scores of Cave Hill Campus students visited the CIBC Caribbean booth at the 2025 UWI Job Fair held recently seeking advice on matching their dreams and academic achievements with career opportunities offered by the bank.

Many of the students, including Ariel Ifill-White and Jiselle Andrews, came away satisfied and speaking positively about the usefulness of the information.

Managers of Talent Acquisition and Development, Kathleen Hall and Stephanie Blackman, led the employees staffing the booth. They said that the bank’s participation was part of its mission of supporting young people.

“We are offering not only expertise and knowledge to new students, but our focus as well is to promote the early career programmes within our organization. [It is] … not only the summer programme, but we have other programmes for which we are seeking to attract new and upcoming talent,” Hall said.

Referring to programmes in corporate banking, retail banking and technology areas, she added that the UWI Job Fair was an ideal place for touching base with new talent, while showcasing CIBC Caribbean as an employer of first choice.

The experience seems to have been a win-win for both the bank and the students. While the bank was able to showcase their functions and careers to several students, and so learned what talents and skills were available in the emerging job market. Some students said they were unaware, but happy to be enlightened about several of the career streams available at the bank. Hall said that UWI students were visiting the booth and asking questions, and while some were not sure about what they would do career-wise, the banking officials were helping them to find the right direction.

Among those giving advice in the booth were employees who had come through the bank’s programmes and, as the theme said, were “Fired Up” to encourage those who were where they had been a few years ago. “We also have employees throughout the organisation, persons who have come through many of our programmes, to justify and solidify our position for being here,” Hall explained.

Speaking on behalf of the students, Ariel Ifill-White and Jiselle Andrews said they had asked about internships, sought career advice, and had come away satisfied with the knowledge gained from staff, whom they described as helpful and friendly. In addition, they got clarifications and other help with accessing some online banking functions, which they said would make life easier for them.