Fasset incentivises graduates to complete a learnership

Fasset (the Seta for Finance and Accounting Services) is creating a win-win situation through the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) Loan Repayment Grant (NLRG). This grant assists learners completing learnerships through a Fasset employer, who need to repay their NSFAS loan, Fasset employers as well as NSFAS itself. Through this initiative, Fasset is also helping to build a skills pipeline of professional accountants within the sector and playing an important role in fast tracking transformation.
Fasset introduced its NLRG to relieve learners on learnerships at Fasset-registered firms of their financial burden associated with the need to repay their NSFAS loans. The Seta recognised that learners often struggle to make ends meet. In addition to paying tuition fees to either complete or further their studies, they have to pay back their NSFAS loans.
Acknowledging that cash-strapped learners are tempted to abandon their Fasset learnership and their dream of becoming a professional accountant, when promised a higher salary in the short-term, Fasset introduced its NLRG. By relieving learners of the financial burden of repaying their NSFAS loan, learners are now able to focus on completing their learnerships and qualifying as professional accountants.
Besides providing much-needed financial relief to learners, the NLRG is supporting employers by improving the retention rate on Fasset learnerships. Although the grant does not offer employers a direct financial benefit, employers benefit in that relieved of their financial burden of repaying their NSFAS loans, learners are more likely to complete their learnership. They also benefit from the fact that on completion of the learnership they are able to claim the completion grant for the Learnership Cash Grant (LCG) or Pivotal Grant.
Fasset’s NLRG is also a benefit for NSFAS as recipients of the Seta’s grant are able to pay back their NSFAS loans much sooner. By boosting NSFAS funds, the fund is able to provide loans or bursaries to more learners, at a time when NSFAS is under severe financial pressure.
The NLRG is available to Black African learners and learners with disabilities, who are South African citizens, with a valid South African identity document. Applicants need to have successfully completed a three-year qualification in ascarce skill area within the Fasset sector.
They also need to be employed by a company which is registered with Fasset. Learners do not have to complete a Fasset learnership; they may complete a learnership registered with one of the other Setas. The only restriction is that the learnership programme must be at least twelve months in duration, on a full-time basis.
The grant is linked to the period of the learnership, not the period of study. The grant is paid in a maximum of four tranches; the amount paid in each tranche depends on the length of the learnership and how much of the learnership has been completed. Repayments are made directly to NSFAS and are based on a tariff.
Fasset would like to encourage Black African graduates with NSFAS loans to seriously consider completing a learnership though their Fasset registered employer. Fasset’s NLRG provides learners with a ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ incentive to obtain a professional designation, or complete an additional qualification, while being ‘assisted’ to repay their NSFAS loans.
More information is available on the Fasset website: www.fasset.org.za
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