Pub. 10 2020-2021 Issue 4

O V E R A C E N T U R Y : B U I L D I N G B E T T E R B A N K S — H E L P I N G C O L O R A D A N S R E A L I Z E D R E A M S www.coloradobankers.org 4 I f you’ve deposited a check by taking a photo on your phone, transferred money to a friend’s bank account using a mobile app or been greeted at a brick-and-mortar bank by a person pointing you to a row of ATMs, you might wonder what the job outlook is for someone in the banking industry. But behind all that technology is a growing labor force of financial advisors, compliance officers, risk analysts and, of course, information technology professionals. Thanks to a new bank ing program and innovative community partnerships, Metropolitan State University of Denver is preparing a new generation of bankers for all of these roles. And the University’s College of Business is doing it with the help of the banking industry itself, said Rey Hernández- Julián, professor of finance at MSU Denver. “We invited representatives from banks to campus and they said, ‘This is what we’re looking for in a banking degree. If you gave someone this skill set, we would want to hire them,’” Hernández-Julián said. So MSU Denver developed a new bachelor’s degree in banking — the first of its kind in the state and one of few nationally — to provide the in- demand skills the banking industry needs in a big way. BY MATT WATSON, STRATEGY, MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS, METROPOLITAN STATE UNIVERSITY OF DENVER Banking on Success Rey Hernández-Julián, professor of finance at MSU Denver, worked with banking industry leaders and community organizations to shape a flexible degree pathway that teaches in-demand skills to the growing banking workforce. Photo by Alyson McClaran FEATURE ARTICLE A newdegree programand innovative pathways jump-start college careers while upgrading a workforce for the in-demand financial-services industry