The Nations Trust Bank advertised for five management trainees a couple of months ago and received 1,200 applications, 800 of them from local graduates. Only two were selected.

Two of the other places went to graduates from foreign universities and the fifth to a candidate with an accounting background. Why?

NTB’s head of human resources (HR), Mr. C. Hewapattini, explained what was lacking in these graduates at a breakfast meeting hosted on Friday by the Institute of Personnel Management and edexcel, the largest educational service provider in the UK which is a member of the Pounds 4.2 billion Pearson Group.

He said it wasn’t only a matter of English. ``If the selection procedure was done in Sinhala, the result would have been the same,’’ he said asking ``what is it that is lacking?’’

He said that these graduates had ample knowledge of the subjects they studied. What they lacked were competencies people acquire through experience and said that this was where companies could help by offering third year internships to these students.

``We don’t do enough and blame the universities,’’ he remarked. ``What is needed is a structured training program (during the internship) including subjects such as research, selling, leadership etc.’’