The Banking Sector Education and Training Authority (BANKSETA) has awarded R1.19 million to the Graduate Centre for Management’s Business Incubation and Innovation Centre (BIIC) as a research partner to conduct cutting-edge research.
Lecturer Judith Smith said the Centre’s partnership with the SETA will run up to March 2023 and that the former will conduct research on skills analysis of FinTechs and how they bridge skills gaps in the banking and alternative banking sectors and strengthen synergies between the banking sector and FinTechs.
Smith added that the other area of research is how skills development contributes to the transformation of the banking and alternative banking sectors. “How can the SETA expand access to post-schooling education and training to help transform the banking and alternative banking sector,” she elaborated.
She described the BIIC as an academic incubator to actualise the vision of smartness propagated by Vice-Chancellor, Prof Chris Nhlapo, as a measure that sets CPUT apart from our counterparts, and that it told the story of how CPUT is grappling with the phenomenal opportunities presented by the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
Dr Michael Twum-Darko, Head of BIIC and the Acting Head of Graduate Centre for Management, said the competency that was established to re-curriculate the Diploma in Banking, PGDip in Digital Business, Bachelor of Business Informatics and Doctor of Business Informatics programmes would be used to conduct the research for the SETA. Twum-Darko encouraged interested researchers to contact him if they want to participate in the research.
The Centre has been identified by Caring4Hope, a Non-Profit Organisation, as one of the incubators in South Africa to turn young South Africans into entrepreneurs. “The Next Big Thing” is a project initiated by Caring4Hope to develop 2 000 South African youth in a year to become job creators for the next three years at an annual cost of R15 million.
The scope of the three-year agreement is for the BIIC to provide theoretical training for entrepreneurial skills development in the form of online coaching and mentoring of selected youth across the country.
Twum-Darko said the contract stipulated that a team of facilitators and assessors meet on a regular basis with the Project’s Coordinator to monitor all aspects of the progress of the students and submit reports to Caring4Hope when available.
Furthermore, Caring4Hope will be responsible for the management of the programme, record- keeping of assessments and forwarding of records and necessary correspondence to all stakeholders including the financial partners.