BANKSETA AR 31 AUGUST

PERFORMANCE INFORMATION

Work Integrated Learning (WIL) and Bursaries The objective of the work integrated learning (WIL) and bursary department of BANKSETA is to address the shortage of scarce and critical skills in South Africa within the banking and alternative banking sector. This contributes to BANKSETA’s overall objective of providing a competent cohort of skilled employees for the banking and micro finance sector. The objective is achieved through a multi-pronged approach. First, public institutions of higher learning are engaged to respond to the needs of the banking sector. Second, WIL works to bridge the gap between the requirements of the industry for employees with specific skills on the one hand, and the supply of such skills by current workers and new entrants into the economy on the other. Third, bursaries are provided through partnerships with universities. The support is holistic, covering tuition, textbooks and accommodation, and is renewable annually depending on the students’ academic progress and availability of funds. Successes for 2021/22 include the number of learners (885; target: 450) funded with bursaries from the BANKSETA for the past few years who will be graduating from higher education institutions in 2022. The increase in numbers is an indication of the programme’s success, as is the fact that most students are from disadvantaged backgrounds, with two thirds of them being women. Under the higher education funding window, funding for bursaries for 717 students was provided (target: 600). In addition, performance information for a further 913 learners who registered in the previous financial year was received: these do not form part of the reported figure. The target for partnerships with universities was set at 10. With 55 university partnerships, this was far exceeded. During the year, 885 students (target: 450) and 85 lecturers (target: 25) successfully completed their programmes, while 64 new lecturer bursaries (target: 50) were signed. The focus areas for BANKSETA are actuarial science (accounting) and bachelors of science (IT) and commerce (IT and finance, economics, financial markets or financial modelling and accounting).

Of the University of Pretoria students who were funded during the year, 14 have now completed their BCom Informatics degrees, and eight have completed the honours programme in that discipline. The market will therefore benefit from a group of highly skilled graduates from a quality programme such as that offered by this institution. Training in these skills is a high priority as there is great demand for skilled professionals who also have comprehensive information technology (IT) skills. In respect of partnerships with various institutions of learning for the WIL programme, 24 MoUs (target: 10) were signed with TVET colleges, six (target: 5) with universities of technology, and 55 (target: 10) with higher education institutions. All targets were thus exceeded, in part because of additional funding allocated by the Board and in part due to some funding in 2020/21 only being finalised in 2021/22. As a result of the increased funding, 1 691 learners accessed WIL through TVETs (target: 543), and 505 through universities of technology (target: 505). A highlight of the year was the pass rate of 70% of students from the Vaal University of Technology, a good achievement given the negative impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. Of the 129 out of 188 students who will graduate, 52 learners have already found employment in the sector and will bring their newfound skills to bear for their employers. The digitisation programme for youth with disabilities was implemented in five provinces, with 249 learners with aptitudes for digital marketing, cloud computing and big data analytics recruited. Of these, 69 per cent completed the programme successfully. The agreement between BANKSETA and the service provider incorporated the need for and use of learning tools for learners with disabilities. With digitisation at the forefront of workplace skills requirements, BANKSETA is investing in programmes linked to the National Certificate: Information Technology (NQF level 5). The focus is on digitalisation as a driver of scarce and critical skills for the banking and alternative banking sector. This is part of BANKSETA’s objective to empower

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PART B: PERFORMANCE INFORMATION | BANKSETA ANNUAL REPORT 2021/22