The South African Institute of Charters Accountants (SAICA) Enterprise Development’s approach to Enterprise and Supplier Development (ESD) is centered on two critical matters faced by young South Africans. The first one is the issue of small businesses that cannot access funding and the second one is the growing number of unemployed graduates in the country. The organisation combines the two in order to create one holistic solution that impacts economic growth.
SAICA Enterprise Development brings together unemployed accounting graduates together with small businesses that are struggling with their finances. The graduates are paid a stipend to process management accounts for these small businesses. These graduates are overseen by a Chartered Accountant who owns their own small accounting practice, for quality control and mentorship. The graduates are stationed at the firm of the chartered accountant. This ensures that the management accounts that they produce are accurate. The aim is to ensure that the small businesses have proper financial records and good financial management in place in order to be able to access the funding available in the marketplace. At the same time, the graduates are gaining valuable work experience.
The graduate programme is not only structured to equip graduates with invaluable industry experience, practical accounting process work experience and valuable soft skills. They are also assessed throughout the duration of their contract and thereafter considered eligible to apply for the SAICA designation - AT(SA) (Accounting Technicians SA), which is an entry level designation at SAICA. On the other hand, the SAICA ESD Fund has enabled Black Owned SMMEs to access accounting services for free or at a lower rate than in the market. The aim of this is to get SMMEs aware of the need for bookkeeping and the use and benefits of an accountant and accounting services. Other interventions include financial coaching and bootcamps, which offer one-on-one sessions with the SMME and classroom workshops to transfer financial knowledge to the SMME.
The graduate programme has shown great success in accounting graduates getting placed or absorbed into industry. Others are absorbed immediately by the Chartered Accountants that supervised them into their own firms. In the 2018 JP Morgan Foundation Programme, there was a 97% success rate in placements of the Accounting graduates into the market. The programme serviced 160 SMMEs with Accounting back office support which involved 50 accounting graduates.
This holistic approach can be tailored to every sector and organisation, being a benefit to procured/ procurable suppliers including suppliers meeting procurement standards.
For more information contact Zanele Gigaba, SAIA Transformation Manager: Zanele@saia.co.za