News Archive

A recent article on education and development published in the Herald Online tells of a recollection by Derrick Schwartz, Vice-Chancellor of the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, of his time studying in Japan in the 1980s. At the time, Schwartz asked business leaders there how they were able to turn a dismal post-war economy into the second biggest economy in the world by market capitalisation. He states: "The answer they gave me rings true for every country: education."

This view is firmly supported by Johan Wasserfall, CEO of Eduloan, South Africa's dedicated educational financial services company: "Never has this been truer than for South Africa in our currently troubled economic times, as we simultaneously cope with the plummeting markets, the results of insufficiently skilled workers due to our unbalanced education policies of the past, and - with skilled emigration at a high - a serious lack of skills in almost every sector."

Johan advises that, according to the recently released Grant Thornton International Business Report survey, 41% of privately held businesses in SA attribute the lack of availability of a skilled workforce as the biggest constraint to business growth. This is the third year running that lack of skills has topped the survey as an issue crying out for attention and something clearly identified as needing to be critically addressed in 2009.

With the average person battling just to pay their monthly debt, many are simply not able to address the issue of continuing their education and so are trapped at an unskilled level, despite the fact that they may inherently possess the latent skills in question. Johan concurs strongly with Schwartz's statement that "education is one of the fundamentals of the economy and a solution to economic concerns", and believes it's time for businesses to pull together and see the long-term benefits to them of educating their workforce.

Eduloan is able to offer businesses and Human Resources professionals concrete, accessible and knowledgeable ways to help companies finance the continued education of their workforce. These ways include targeting the skills area in which the company has a shortage and providing employees access to education by:

• Advising and mentoring employees as to the time and lifestyle management changes involved in simultaneously studying and working;
• Assisting employees with obtaining, managing and paying their educational loans through various avenues, such as upfront educational funding, bursaries and/or reimbursements and standing debit-orders managed by the company.

Johan stresses the benefits of businesses obtaining educational funding for their staff by partnering with a company such as Eduloan, which has educational funding as its dedicated focus and is aware of and in alignment with the lending criteria of the National Credit Act.

For more information on how companies and HR professionals can provide their staff with educational funding through Eduloan, or for an interview with Johan Wasserfall, CEO of Eduloan, please contact us ASAP.

Eduloan is the only dedicated financial services company in South Africa, focusing on providing financial solutions to students with the goal of ensuring that tertiary education is accessible to all. Eduloan is firmly committed to contributing meaningfully to social and economic upliftment through education and is a responsible financial services provider with the interests of its students foremost in mind. For further information, contact Eduloan's Client Services Department on 0860-55-55-44 or visit www.eduloan.co.za.

Editorial Contact:
Keri-Ann Clark
Kezi Communications (Pty) Ltd
Tel: 011 616 1860
Keri-ann@kezi.co.za
www.kezi.co.za

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