Last month pupils from Eton College and partner schools experienced an intense two-hour crash course session with AmplifyMe’s finance accelerator simulator.
AmplifyMe provides role specific training to companies to help identify an employee’s skillset, and give them the opportunity to try out different jobs in financial services. Recently they have been touring their courses virtually to schools and universities around the country, giving pupils the opportunity to try different day-to-day activities carried out by those in the financial sector.
Their simulations have been used by over 100,000 pupils worldwide and are used to train analysts at Morgan Stanley, Citi, Credit Suisse, and Citadel.
The session began with a rapid introduction to the platform before pupils got the chance to get to grips with it themselves. An impressive array of online resources was available to all 75 of us on the course, and it was transformative for pupils to have a go for themselves.
Pupils came from many local schools, including St Mary’s Ascot, Windsor Girls, Windsor Boys, Holyport, Langley Academy, and Eton College.
In videos by the cofounders of AmplifyMe, pupils learnt the basics of what stocks to buy and when, liquidity, risk management, and free market economics. Then we were split into two teams, investment bankers and asset managers, the latter of which were given 20 million virtual dollars for trading.
The simulation was fast paced and detailed, including breaking news alerts affecting the live prices, and noises of the trading floor. Those playing the investment banker role were encouraged to create bids for virtual clients and give them options to buy and sell closer to the live trading price than other offers. There was a flurry of trading for a half an hour session before the teams got the chance to switch sides.
The asset managers had an enormous virtual portfolio to control, and in a busy stock exchange with lots of fluctuating prices it was a challenge to keep on top of everything. There were only five available stocks to trade but there was still a lot to take in during the immersive experience.
Charlie R, in C Block (Year 12), described the day as “a valuable insight into the world of trading. I was impressed by the advanced software AmplifyMe provided us with, and trading from the perspectives of both an investment banker and asset manager gave me a real understanding of a career in finance.”
At the end of the session, AmplifyMe returned pupils’ results and explained what each metric meant. They got percentage scores on each aspect, from decision making and rapid responses, to fat finger scores, where they lost points for clerical errors in their bids. As an increasingly common tool to gain raw potential rather than preparation, this score can be forwarded to potential future employers, where AmplifyMe can help give a positive recommendation to pupils looking for finance jobs.
Thanks go to Ms McKenna in the Careers Department, and the whole of the AmplifyMe team, for their help in hosting such an impressive event.
