In a twist on the mentor relationship, University of Miami students are preparing to take senior Citi bankers under their wings, teaching the suits about social media and digital technologies.
The 'reverse mentoring' programme will involve 15 senior execs from Citi's Latin American regional office working in areas including consumer banking, treasury and trade, wealth management and private banking, public affairs and human resources.
Each banker will be paired with an undergrad or grad student from the university's school of business for six months, beginning in October, gaining an insight into areas such as mobile wallets, social media relationships and dealing with millennial customers and employees.
The student mentors will work with their executives in face-to-face meetings, as well as virtually, throughout the programme. They will also get some training themselves, sponsored by Citi, in presentation skills, innovation and design thinking.
Alvaro Marquez, head, human resources, Citi Latin America, says: "We believe in the valuable contribution that young students can offer through their fresh perspective and we expect to take advantage of that to fine-tune our digital strategy for the next ten or fifteen years."