Letsema Learnership Programme 2013 Graduation Ceremony Speech by BANKSETA CEO Max Makhubalo

Honourable Guests, Graduates, Ladies and Gentlemen, It is my great pleasure to be here today to celebrate in the success of the Letsema Learnership Programmes graduating class of 2012. Nothing makes me more proud and more hopeful than to see previously unemployed youngsters ready to go out into the world better equipped to find meaningful, rewarding long-term employment than they were a year ago. This especially as every single graduate has faced extraordinary personal and social challenges. Yet they are here to show us and the rest of the world that with courage, commitment and dedication, it is possible to overcome adverse circumstances, and boldly shape ones own destiny. At BANKSETA, we are acutely aware of how important education, training and skills transfer is to long-term success, both at an individual and socio-economic level. More than that, we understand that workplace experience is vital if candidates are to be able to build productive careers in todays tough economic climate. It is for this reason that we so strongly support the Letsema Learnership Programme, and believe that the model on which it is based has so much to offer in the face of our countrys very real employment challenges. As you know, Letsema is a BANKSETA-funded programme that provides for the recruitment of unemployed learners, places them in internships in financial institutions across the country, and offers them a monthly stipend for the 12-month duration of the programme. Registered employers, in turn, are responsible for providing interns with workstations, training and coaching; for offering skills transfer, invaluable workplace experience and, at the end of the programme, a nationally recognised qualification.
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And while employment is not guaranteed on completion, absorption into the financial services sector is between 75% and 85%. The success of the Letsema programme is due not only to the generous contributions of participating employers, but also to the fact that it is a practical, people-centred programme, focused on providing skills and experience that will have real relevance in the contemporary economy. During the course of the programme, learners are also exposed to the key role that banking has to play in shaping national life and in fostering transformation, and are therefore able to develop an understanding of how the interconnected global economy functions. BANKSETA and Letsema strongly support the governments mandate of growing black participation throughout the economy, and of creating meaningful work and a sustainable livelihood for all the countrys people. But the programme has more to teach than just skills. The Letsema model is so successful because it is based on practical principles, mutual cooperation and the principle of ubuntu; of individuals, companies and communities working together and helping others to be everything they can be. In the words of our founding president, Nelson Mandela, one cannot be happy and secure if ones neighbour is starving. So it is up to us - all of us - to make sure this never happens. To graduates, my message is therefore this: go out and make your mark in the world; build a life and a career that you and your sponsors can be proud of. That will be our greatest reward. But remember too that you have been helped and, when you are established and successful in your work, reach out to offer a hand up to those who need it in the same way that you yourselves needed it. In South Africa, we know that a stable, secure and prosperous society can only be created if we all work together, and so it is your task not only to create successful lives for yourselves, but to help others in the same way that you have been helped. The Letsema Learnership Programme aims to open up new doors for 7,000 young people over a period of seven years, and we are well on the way to fulfilling that

goal. My sincere hope is that the programme will continue to enable bright, enthusiastic and innovative black youngsters from disadvantaged backgrounds to enter the mainstream economy, and to make the deep and meaningful contribution I know they are able to make. Graduates, I wish you success, I wish you happiness and, above all, I wish you the strength and perseverance to become the foundation stones of a prosperous, inclusive and successful country that can forever remain a beacon of hope to the world. I thank you. Max Makhubalo BANKSETA CEO