Absa and the University of Johannesburg (UJ), once again joined hands, to ensure that the University’s graduates are fully equipped to join industry, locally and internationally with solid financial planning skills.
UJ’s third-year Bachelor of Commerce finance students were presented with a case study from which they had to provide a comprehensive financial plan for a hypothetical client. Sponsored by Absa Financial Services, the case study project, designed to ensure that students understand the financial planning process, was judged by experts from the Financial Planning Institute, Absa Financial Services executives and UJ.
Izak Smit, Managing Executive for Absa Financial Services Distribution, says: “Our decision to sponsor the financial planning case study is informed by our continued commitment to contribute to skills development in South Africa. This initiative compliments the work that we are already doing through the Absa Adviser Academy. This is testament to our citizenship mission to empower young people with financial skills that will help them be employable and entrepreneurial. The Academy thoroughly embodies the goal of helping people achieve their goals in the right way and enabling clients secure their financial future.”
Professor Gideon Els, Head: Department of Finance and Investment Management at the UJ says: “This partnership not only bridges the boundary between university studies and business needs but also highlights the standard of the University’s teaching and learning programmes, and strengthens innovation and skills development, which could translate into job creation within the financial sector. We strongly believe that the financial planning case study presents the students with an opportunity to put to into practice what they have learnt in their studies.”
The case study, which is given to the students in the second semester, includes all aspects of financial planning such as tax, estate planning, retirement planning and business insurance amongst others. The case study is done in two stages. In the first stage of the case study, the 185 students formed groups of five or six and submitted a written report to the lecturers in Financial Planning at the University.
Based on technical and visual aspects of their presentations, the top ten groups proceeded to make presentations to a panel of experts comprising of officials from the UJ’s Department of Finance and Investment Management, the Financial Planning Institute and ABSA.
The top four groups are: 1st Financial First Aid (Pty) LTD, 2nd KLMS Investments, 3rd uSizo Financial Consultants and 4th Orbit Financial Solutions. The prize giving will take place tonight in UJ’s Council Chamber at the Auckland Park Kingsway Campus. The two top groups will showcase their presentations at this esteemed evening. Absa has been funding the Financial Planning Case studies since 2009.
