25 years inside the sector.
Since 1999, we've built the people financial services counts on, specialists in banking and insurance. First one cohort, then thousands, then a generation.
Built for the sector. From day one.
01In 1999, Cornerstone Performance Solutions was founded with a specific job to do: design learning that builds real people for real roles across South Africa's financial services sector, with deep specialism in banking and insurance.
That focus has never moved. 25 years on, we're still doing the same job, building qualifications, cohorts and platforms that the sector knows by name, and that the people who finish them carry into careers in the banks, insurers and broker networks that trained their predecessors.
Dr Indira Bhagaloo
Chief Executive Officer, Cornerstone Performance Solutions
Indira leads CPS, setting the academic and vocational strategy, building the partnerships, expanding the programme reach and the delivery capability that sits behind it. She runs the team that runs the cohorts.
Before CPS, Indira spent 26 years inside financial services, including executive positions as Head of Private Banking and Head of Business Banking Channel at one of South Africa's major banks. She holds a Ph.D. and an MBA.
That sector experience is the reason CPS programmes work the way they do. Indira knows what banks need staff to be able to do because she ran those teams. Every CPS qualification is built with that lens.
The people the sector knows by name.
Educators, learning designers, programme managers and delivery specialists, many with careers inside banking, insurance and financial services before they joined CPS. The people you call when a programme matters and the cohort is real.
The sector doesn't hire qualifications. It hires people who can do the work.
25 years of building cohorts for banks, insurers and broker networks taught us one thing, the credential matters, but capability is what gets people hired, promoted and kept. So that's what we build for.
Every CPS programme is reverse-engineered from a real role in financial services. Every module, every assessment, every workplace exercise exists to close the distance between what a student knows on day one and what the sector needs them to do on day 365.
How we work.
Three principles shape every programme we design, every cohort we run and every partnership we sign.
Sector first, always
Every CPS programme is built around the work people actually do in financial services, specifically in banking and insurance. We design backwards from the role, not forwards from a textbook.
Built to be finished
A qualification only counts when you complete it. Structured journeys, faster feedback and visible progress aren't nice-to-haves, they're what separates a credential from a certificate of attendance.
Ready, not just qualified
We measure ourselves against where students land after the programme, the role they step into, the promotion they earn, the work they can now do. Capability is the outcome. Everything else is a means.
Three futures
we're working toward.
We envision a more equal South Africa,
where access to quality learning is not determined by circumstance.
We envision a prosperous Africa,
where the continent's talent is fully developed and unleashed.
We envision a kinder world,
where education bridges divides and builds understanding across communities and cultures.