South Africa commemorates Youth Day annually on June 16th, and the month of June is recognised as Youth Month. In June this year, the Ikusasa Student Financial Aid Programme Foundation (ISFAP) commended the 1 472 graduates who have obtained university degrees in occupations in high demand through its bursary scheme, since it was established in 2017. Most of these graduates have obtained qualifications in Engineering Sciences: 361 graduates to date. After engineering, accounting and medicine are the fields in which the programme has seen the highest number of graduates, with 351 and 312 graduates respectively.
Since it was initiated, the ISFAP has allocated more than R2 billion to funding students from poor and ‘missing middle’ backgrounds, with a substantial share of this funding going to psycho-social assistance, or ‘wraparound support’, for its enrolled students.
“It’s taken a lot of commitment to get to this point,” said Werner Abrahams, CEO of ISFAP. “Students, funders, and of course the team at ISFAP have made significant investments to get here. We have supported close to 1 500 young people to empower themselves and support their families and, at the same time, they are making a meaningful contribution to society.
“While we are pleased with our progress, we know that there are many more deserving young South Africans who want to become educated and empowered to build a life of value for themselves, their families and their communities,” Abrahams said. “Our mission is to support as many deserving young South Africans on this journey as we possibly can.”
The team at ISFAP is aware that there is considerable scope for collaboration among players in the higher education sector. It has issued a call, especially to private sector companies and to other bursary funds, to collaborate, to work together to support poor and missing middle students who want to pursue tertiary qualifications in occupations in high demand.
While the organisation is pleased with the progress made across all streams, it has noted that students enrolled in engineering programmes tend to require more intensive support during the course of their studies. For this reason, ISFAP plans to include an added layer of support within the wraparound support intended for engineering students. This will enable students, regardless of their backgrounds, to meet the university level criteria for maths and science that they need to succeed. It also intends to engage funders around supporting students who may need to pursue extended degree programmes.
“Building up to this point has been challenging in several respects and we hope to see more investment into the holistic funding and support for our students in future. Our model requires a greater investment per student, on average, because of the intensive support we offer; and the results speak for themselves,” Abrahams noted. “We’re committed to making every effort to support each of the students to succeed,” he said.
“As we work to capacitate more young South Africans to become skilled contributors to society, we invite businesses and other organisations to continue to partner with us in making these critical investments into the education of deserving young South Africans,” Abrahams said.
The Ikusasa Student Financial Aid Programme Foundation NPC (ISFAP) is a non-profit organisation dedicated to funding and supporting the higher education of South Africa’s missing middle students. Established in 2017, ISFAP partners with various universities and private sector entities to ensure that students in need can access and succeed in higher education, contributing to the nation’s economic development.
For more information visit www.isfap.org.za
