<strong>By: Nathan Motjuwadi, Executive: Human Resources at Capitec Bank</strong>

<h2>Educating South Africa: The crucial role of big corporates</h2>

In <a href="https://www.politicalanalysis.co.za/ramaphosa-urges-business-firms-to-employ-young-people-to-decrease-unemployment/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.politicalanalysis.co.za/ramaphosa-urges-business-firms-to-employ-young-people-to-decrease-unemployment/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1557470662709000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHgugDIuQ6RtJgGiaIX4eCneDn39Q">a recent Twitter Q&A with South Africa’s youth</a>, President Cyril Ramaphosa urged businesses to employ young people even if they don’t have work experience. Previous work experience and a lack of quality education continue to be barriers to entry for many of South Africa’s youth. Looking to government exclusively to solve the employment issues is not realistic, the private sector has a huge role to play in turning around South Africa’s employment statistics which currently stand at a whopping <a href="http://www.statssa.gov.za/?p=11882" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.statssa.gov.za/?p%3D11882&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1557470662709000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHxrDPr5xanPhHjRzH2oR7N9e-IwQ">27.1% of the South African work force</a>.

Nathan Motjuwadi, Executive: Human Resources at Capitec Bank, believes corporates need to rethink the way they employ and the way they view skills. “While there are initiatives in place to close the gap between education and the needs of businesses, corporates need to do more. Job creation cannot be amplified without looking at how we train individuals so they can succeed in skilled, high paying jobs.”

He said Capitec is deeply committed to growing its own timber. “Our philosophy is to seek individuals with potential and then to develop these candidates to become future managers and leaders from within our employee base. We have programmes for every facet of employment – from maths and science programmes in schools, to bursary schemes for high school and university students to a graduate development programme and leadership training programmes for other employees. Once we employ someone, we believe in giving them the best possible chance of success.”

Motjuwadi believes that if corporates want to see different results from education in South Africa, they are obligated to get more actively involved. “To bring about transformation in our workspace, we introduced a Capitec Graduate Development Programme. The programme focuses on people of colour with 75% of current participants being women. It employs university graduates in a permanent role within the organisation, allowing them to acquire skills and experience in all the business units of the bank before placing them in a position where they can excel. This includes the finance, marketing, risk, IT, science, business development and credit departments as well as the human resources division.

Lebohang Mafa completed the Capitec Graduate Development Programme and is now an Operational Risk Consultant at Capitec. “The programme is designed in such a way that it provides you with a holistic view of the organisation – this is what encouraged me to join the graduate programme in the initial stages. I had the opportunity to spend time and contribute in various departments and through that I was able to learn and understand the value derived from each department and how that interconnected value is realised by the client. While getting this great exposure and developing your functional capabilities, the programme also places emphasis on developing your leadership competencies. All this works in conjunction to support your growth and career progression within the organisation.”

Capitec has seen employee retention improve by approximately 3% since the introduction of the graduate development programme in addition to the skills development programmes as well as implementing suggestions and addressing concerns revealed in regular employee satisfaction surveys.

The bank also offers initiatives and learnerships approved by the Department of Education for principals and teachers in order to contribute to the overall quality of education in South Africa. “We realised that only targeting students may result in some success with the transfer of skills but will not necessarily effect the country as a whole.”

“Our goal is to positively impact the country by growing our skills base. We believe firmly in a ripple effect - if you touch one life, it will touch many others in the broader community.”