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Background

As part of the Banking Sector’s commitment to the Financial Services Charter and in support of the Growth and Development Summit agreements, it was decided in late 2003 to launch an initiative to train 5000 unemployed learners within the Banking and Micro Finance Sector.

To this effect, two learnerships (each one year in duration) were introduced:

Financial Services Advice (FSA) learnership – intended for recently qualified learners with a matric (grade 12) certificate
Certificate in Business Management (CIBM) – intended for learners with a suitable 3-year tertiary qualification (e.g. BComm Accounting/Economic, NDip in Cost Accounting)

Tenders

Recruitment, training as well as learner administration and support services are outsourced. The BANKSETA follows a transparent and fair public tendering process and prospective service providers are requested to respond to invitation for tenders as and when they are published. All tenders will be published in the Government Gazette Tender Bulletin as well as on the BANKSETA website homepage when the respective services are required.

Recruitment of learners

The BANKSETA outsources the recruitment of learners on behalf of the employers participating in the Letsema Project. The process that learners must follow if they want to apply as well as the applicable dates will be published in the national press and on the BANKSETA website homepage when the recruitment process starts. The next recruitment phase will be in August / September 2007.

Letsema I: March 2004 – March 2005

The first group of 826 learners were recruited and commenced their learnership on 27 March 2004. Learners were sourced in accordance with selection criteria stipulated by the sector and meeting the minimum National Skills Development Strategy equity targets:

85% black learners
54% female learners
4% learners with disabilities

The learners were placed in Gauteng only.

The four major commercial banks accommodated 200 learners each – 150 on the Financial Services Advice (FSA) Learnership and 50 learners on the Business Development (BDL) Learnership. The learnership obtained its objectives. Of the 625 FSA learners 96% graduated. The success rate of the 201 BDL learners was 70%. Approximately 83% of the learners have found employment after the completion of the learnership.

Letsema II (March 2005 – Feb 2006)

813 learners started the learnership on 1 March 2005 and were placed with 22 organisations in the Banking and Micro Finance Sector. Learners were placed in Gauteng, Western Cape, Bloemfontein and Kwa Zulu Natal. Letsema II met and in some cases exceeded its objectives of recruiting:

85% black learners
54% female learners
4% learners with disabilities

The learnership has successful completion rate of 96% for the Financial Services Advice Learnership and 55% for the business Development Learnership. A survey completed in October 2006 showed that 80.5% of learners found permanent employment after completion.

Letsema III (Feb 2006 – Jan 2007)

The project recruited 824 learners that started on 1 February 2006. Learners were placed nationally with banks as well as micro finance organisations. The learners completed the Learnership in January 2007. For this intake of the Letsema Project learners were placed on the Financial Services Advice Learnership only. The Business Development Learnership was run as a separate project with 140 learners, now called the BANKSETA Kuyasa Programme.

97% of learners completed the learnership successfully. The current employment rate is 79%.

Letsema IV (Feb 2007 – Jan 2008)

The Learnership started on 1 February 2007. 1100 learners are placed with 16 employers in the banking and micro finance sector. Training will be delivered by Milpark Business School (formerly trading as Damelin School of Banking and Insurance) in 15 sites across South Africa.

Of those that wrote the examinations 83% passed the qualification.

Letsema V (Feb 2008 to Jan 2009)

A total of 1187 learners were recruited onto the Letsema V Financial Services Advice Learnership. These learners have been placed in all 9 provinces across South Arica. The provider of the training component for the Financial Services Advice Learnership is Milpark Business School (formerly trading as Damelin School of Banking and Insurance).