First National Bank (FNB) has pledged a total of R20 million in support to the CIDA City Campus, which offers virtually free tertiary education to students in Johannesburg. The campus offers business and IT training.
FNB is already a CIDA partner, and sponsors 1 000 students studying a four-year business degree. The bank has donated a multimillion-rand building with an additional R8 million of renovations to expand the campus. It is also piloting the first non-collateral-based student loan programme, tailor-made for CIDA students.
"This is an interdependent relationship between ourselves and CIDA. The programmes sponsored by FNB are intended to train, expose and prepare students in a practical way for the work environment," says Wendy Lucas-Bull, FNB Retail cluster CEO.
"We are piloting a `university of work` concept with FNB by working closely with the bank to find out what knowledge and skills they require of their future workforce," says Taddy Blecher, CIDA City Campus CEO.
"Individuals from across the First Rand Group lecture at the campus to ensure the knowledge provided is relevant. The students are then offered holiday jobs and internships. FNB is planning to employ a number of graduates at the end of this year.
"In 2004 we will begin a banking learnership for 150 of our students, which we aim to grow substantially by 2005. The Banking SETA has developed the learnerships and CIDA is the training provider."
This year, FNB piloted vacation work programmes for a number of CIDA students and will take on a further 100 students during the December vacation.
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