Barclays and SBSA strengthen partnership |12 July 2017

Barclays Bank (Seychelles) Limited has reaffirmed its commitment to encourage prosperity and stimulate growth in the country through the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Seychelles Business Studies Academy (SBSA).

The MoU was signed last week at the Capital City by the managing director of Barclays Bank (Seychelles) Johan Van Schalkwyk and the director of SBSA Josianne Bristol in the presence of employees from both institutions and students from SBSA.

This is in line with the bank’s Readytowork Pan-African programme, an initiative kick started with the aim to help young people build the required skills to succeed in the world of work.

This three-year agreement is an important milestone between both parties as it solidifies a partnership established between the two since last year and brings visibility to the programme.

As stipulated by the MoU Barclays Bank will be financially responsible for providing SBSA students with a combination of face-to-face and online training sessions.

On the other hand SBSA’s lecturers will be responsible for conducting these classes and the first batch of students is expected to embark on the programme on July 17.

These sessions will be made available to all Year 3 students for the next three years where they will be trained and certified in four specific skills that will help them excel in employment or self-employment, namely: Money, People, Entrepreneurial and Work.

The key focus of ReadytoWork is to get those leaving tertiary education a solid foothold in the industries they wish to venture into through the acquisition of these four skills.

An adept of these skill sets will be knowledgeable on how an interview is conducted, how to bolster a good curriculum vitae, how to run the finances for their own budding business among countless other elements.

Mrs Bristol expressed her gratitude to the bank stating that the certification from the ReadytoWork will be a welcoming addition to her students’ portfolios.

“With ReadytoWork our students will now have an additional certificate alongside their local diploma and the City and Guilds/AAT certificate.”

Mr Schalkwyk emphasised that the programme does not form part of their corporate social investment but rather it falls under Barclays’ core principle of shared growth; a concept adopted as of last year and which is fundamentally different from traditional corporate social responsibility.

In fact ReadytoWork is the pillar of Barclays Africa broader action plan called “Share Growth Strategy ”- an idea based on shared values where connections between societal and economic progress is pivotal for the betterment of everybody.

Barclays Africa has arranged for 1.4 billion South African Rand to be made available to its branches all over the continent for the education and skills development of youths.

The principle of shared growth for all is pretty straightforward: Barclays believes it can only prosper if the community it is based in also prospers.

Mr Schalkwyk also expressed the hope that students benefitting from such a programme will develop the psyche of working hard and ensure that they put these skills in practice alongside their academic know-how.

“One of the biggest assumptions that gets made is that once people get a formal education they would automatically know how to deal with the world of work but that transition sometimes prove to be far more difficult,” Mr Schalkwyk explained.

Note that this sentiment was also voiced out by the newly appointed minister Pamela Charlette in the National Assembly last week where she stated that perhaps more emphasis should be put on skill sets instead of just qualifications.