Citibank Korea’s tie-up with Ewha Womans University and Kyung Hee University is helping students trying to get ahead in the nation’s sluggish job market.

Since opening in 2001, the Ewha-Citi Global Finance Academy has been offering lessons about the financial market and providing job experience opportunities to students in pursuit of a career in the industry.

The program invites finance experts from Citibank to deliver 12 in-depth lectures about the financial industry. Topics related to private banking, enterprise finance, investment finance and risk management are included in the course. A student with excellent academic performance and a professor’s recommendation is offered a job training opportunity at Citibank, the bank said in a statement.

Another joint program by the bank and Kyung Hee University, the Citi-Kyung Hee NGO Internship, offers eight weeks of work experience at nonprofit organizations. It was started in 2006 and nearly 1,000 students have worked at 70 local nongovernmental organizations. During the internship, the participants are invited to a “Happy Lunch” event with bank executives who offer them career advice.

By Song Ji-won (jiwon.song@heraldcorp.com)