I was recently interviewed by the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) about the work that Winning Teams is doing in the field of education. CIMA is a world leading professional institute that offers an internationally recognised qualification in management accountancy, focusing on preparing their members for business. The subsequent article was published in the August/September 2007 edition of “Bottom Line”, the CIMA Southern Africa newsletter. Here is their article.
Learners Set to Become Winners
Many of today’s school-leavers will find it difficult to get a job once they leave school. Some may have to create their own job opportunities through self-employment, and a few will become successful entrepreneurs.
On the whole though, few school-leavers have the necessary knowledge, skills and enterprising attitudes to succeed in the workplace, or to create their own opportunities for employment. For the economy to prosper, the country needs people who are enterprising as employees, employers and also as entrepreneurs.
This is the challenge that Jody Hollis, a Director of Winning Teams, says lead to the “Winning Teams in Education” programme. This is an initiative aimed at increasing the level of personal financial education of learners, so that all young people will leave school with the financial knowledge, life skills and confidence they need to make a positive contribution to the world of work.
Funded by Standard Bank and Postbank, the programme has been rolled out to all public schools in Gauteng, with pilot projects planned in KwaZulu-Natal, the Western Cape, and the Eastern Cape. The programme is run in conjunction with the various provincial education departments. Grades 10 through 12 are targeted, with learners discovering how to perform common work-related tasks, such as reading a payslip, and drawing up a personal budget.
This year, 600 schools in Gauteng are participating with 250 000 learners being empowered through weekly sessions. Each school is given learning aids and supporting learning materials to educate the learners, who compete on a board game and score points through correct questions answered. Each game consists of two to four teams, with three to five players per team.
This interactive teaching method means learners need to understand what is being taught as well as learning how to participate in a team environment, listen actively, and develop their communication skills.
This is a three-year programme, and by 2009 it is hoped that the programme will be extended to all secondary schools in the country, and reach the approximately half a million learners entering the workplace.
Jody Hollis is himself a FCMA, and says that the basic business fundamentals from CIMA are taught to the learners, since the CIMA syllabus equips people with broad skills in business. “After looking at many models used in the US, Australia, the UK and Scotland — we decided on an uniquely SA approach, which incorporates and caters for the intricacies and problems specific to our country.”
Winning Teams staff go to the schools and teach the methodology to the educators responsible for leading the programme. “We emphasise that learners need to have fun while learning and not feel that this is just another compulsory subject. Weekly results are recorded so knowledge levels can be tracked, as well as participation levels.” Should they note that a school is not performing, Winning Teams will go out to the school to monitor and offer advice. “The programme is outcome based so we want to ensure that learners get the full benefit from the project.”
Jody Hollis says the private sector needs to become more involved in education and help make a difference in these learners’ lives. With a shortage of accountants in South Africa, as well as an overall shortage of professional people as a whole, CIMA believes this school programme is the first step towards addressing this issue.
UPDATE
A shorter version of this article was published in the September edition of CIMA's worldwide magazine "Financial Management", which has a global readership of around 150,000 finance professionals in practice and business.
