	{"id":106967,"date":"2025-08-20T04:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-08-19T18:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/bendigotimes\/?p=106967"},"modified":"2025-08-13T17:58:17","modified_gmt":"2025-08-13T07:58:17","slug":"chance-for-prospective-bankers-to-gain-experience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/bendigotimes\/news\/chance-for-prospective-bankers-to-gain-experience\/","title":{"rendered":"Chance for prospective bankers to gain experience"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>WESTPAC will next year offer places in a new regional graduate program, with Bendigo as one of the options.<\/p>\n<p>The regional program builds on the bank&#8217;s existing graduate and summer intern program and will offer placements at 10 key regional centres.<\/p>\n<p>Westpac business and wealth group executive Paul Fowler said the program is focused on creating meaningful training, development and employment opportunities for talented local people.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We want to invest in the next generation of leaders and have built a program that&#8217;s more than just jobs, focusing on building careers and supporting communities,&#8221; Mr Fowler said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The program has been designed to give graduates hands-on experience with the opportunity to get on premise to meet with customers and support with financial and credit analysis.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;By providing more tailored experiences with personalised support we can help fast-track career pathways for talent in these regions. We&#8217;re also providing more flexibility to choose where they want to launch their careers.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Graduates can choose to be based in Bendigo, Ballarat, Rockhampton, Toowoomba, Townsville, Wagga Wagga, Tamworth, Orange, Naracoorte or Launceston, where they will undertake four, three-month rotations with Westpac&#8217;s regional and agribusiness team.<\/p>\n<p>Participants will gain experience and training in lending, portfolio management, credit risk, strategy and environmental, social and governance (ESG) practices within the two teams.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The best part of my job is being able to work and support local farms and regional businesses within my own community,&#8221; said Westpac&#8217;s regional general manager for central Victoria and Gippsland, Mandy Hehir.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s exciting to be able to provide local graduates with training and career opportunities in their home regions.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Nurturing local talent and supporting the next generation of leaders in regional communities is critical to ensuring they continue to thrive.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This is a unique opportunity for local graduates to gain real-world experience, develop their skills, and support business growth in their communities.&#8221;<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_30038\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-30038\" style=\"width: 601px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-30038\" src=\"https:\/\/static.timesnewsgroup.com.au\/prod\/uploads\/sites\/24\/2025\/08\/WestpacHehir_01935.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"601\" height=\"400\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-30038\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Westpac&#8217;s central Victoria and Gippsland regional manager Mandy Hehir described the regional progra<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The graduate program is available to students in their final year of university studies or who have completed either an undergraduate or postgraduate degree in the last three years.<\/p>\n<p>Westpac&#8217;s central Victoria and Gippsland regional manager Mandy Hehir described the regional program as a unique opportunity for local graduates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WESTPAC will next year offer places in a new regional graduate program, with Bendigo as one of the options. The regional program builds on the bank&#8217;s existing graduate and summer intern program and will offer placements at 10 key regional centres. Westpac business and wealth group executive Paul Fowler said the program is focused on [&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"btn btn-secondary understrap-read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/bendigotimes\/news\/chance-for-prospective-bankers-to-gain-experience\/\">Read More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":225,"featured_media":106971,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-106967","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Chance for prospective bankers to gain experience - Bendigo Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Westpac graduate program launches in Bendigo and beyond\u2014hands-on banking experience for regional grads ready to build careers.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/bendigotimes\/news\/chance-for-prospective-bankers-to-gain-experience\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Chance for prospective bankers to gain experience - 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