The latest investment from BANKSETA – R5.8 Million in 2021 – will open the doors of higher education to even more talented students.

BANKSETA is a statutory body established through the Skills Development Act of 1998 to enable its stakeholders to advance the national and global position of the broader banking and micro-finance industry. As guided by its mandate, BANKSETA promotes employment equity and broad-based black economic empowerment, and supports people development through partnerships, skills development, alleviating unemployment, creating a brighter future, and enabling change.

"The bursaries funded by the BANKSETA contribution evolved from the Project Zero initiative which was established in 2016 as a special initiative of the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences. This project, in its new format, continues to operate under the same ethos as previous years, where bursary support is provided to talented students from lower socio-economic backgrounds (including “missing-middle” households) who could not raise bursary funding to cover their full tuition and associated study costs,” explains Candice Egan from SU’s Development and Alumni Relations Division.

"The Faculty recognises that students experience considerable stress when they do not have the financial resources to carry the costs associated with university study and this impacts negatively on their academic performance. Through this project, students continue to receive a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to enter the job market with a tertiary qualification and no student debt."

The bursary covers the full cost of tuition, accommodation, meals, as well as book allowance.

"The objective of the project, as set out in the goals of BANKSETA, is to increase the diversity of students in the scarce-skills gap of the financial sector. The bursaries serve to ensure that beneficiary students, who are often the first in their families to attend university, are able to study without worrying about the cost," adds Egan.

According to BANKSETA project manager, Nobuzwe Mangcu, the primary focus of the BANKSETA relationship with SU is the commitment of both partners to implementing one of the BANKSETA’s key strategic focus areas, namely youth development.

"The SETA’s collaboration and partnerships with institutions of higher learning has proved beneficial as a means of promoting skills development initiatives through learning and training interventions needed by the banking sector currently and in the future. The BANKSETA has the responsibility to support transformation in learning and working environments. Through the Memorandum of Agreement that is signed, the University is an active partner in the process of achieving set transformation targets."