One of Singapore's "Big Three" banks has rolled out a new internship programme that aims to glean innovative ideas from those taken on.

OCBC claims to be breaking new ground with its internship programme, arguing that the six-month scheme will not just introduce entrants to banking but deliberately foster entrepreneurship skills and knowledge.

Called the OCBC FRANKpreneurship programme, it was officially launched in march and runs from May to November. The programme attracted more than 500 applications from undergraduates studying at universities in Singapore and overseas. Out of that number, 26 penultimate-year undergraduates from Singapore universities – National University of Singapore, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore Management University and Singapore University of Social Sciences (formerly UniSIM) – were selected. The FRANKpreneurs will be assessed during the programme to see if they are suitable for the lender's management trainee programme.

“The OCBC FRANKpreneurship is designed to be different from other internship programmes in the market. Throughout the six months, 26 outstanding students will be immersed in a business environment with hands-on work experience, while working on cross-divisional projects using a `start-up' approach where they will be exposed to the methodologies, thinking and journey of a start-up,"  Jason Ho, head of group human resources, OCBC, said in a statement yesterday.

The students will be attached to specific units in the bank, from retail banking, corporate banking and treasury, to fintech, technology and human resources, to understudy specially selected line managers. Wealth management is covered under this scheme, a spokesperson said, because there will be a couple of interns who will be attached to OCBC's wealth management team during their internship. Private banking, which is conducted under Bank of Singapore, which is owned by OCBC, is not covered by the programme.

The programme requires students to work creatively on a problem statement that is not confined to an existing banking issue. The statement requires students to come up with an innovative solution to “build the bank for the new world economy” as they envisage what their ideal bank of the future will be like.

Students must pitch their ideas to a panel of judges made up of OCBC's senior management, line managers, and unversity professors.

Professors and specialist exports will teach the students about entrepreneurship, enterprise  and business development, strategic management, or finance innovation who will play the role of team mentors. OCBC experts will train the students in business analytics and experience design. Entrepreneurs behind an actual start-up, Onelyst – which is in OCBC Bank’s fintech accelerator programme - will pass on the skills and approaches theyused to overcome various hurdles.

The programme, OCBC said, also creates a "first" by featuring partnership with Google and Adobe to equip students with digital skills and tools essential to today’s businesses. The partnership cloud-based applications and workshops.