Published ahead of Youth Day, 16 June 2026.
There is a particular kind of silence that follows matric results day. Not the celebratory hush before a family erupts in pride, but the quieter one. The one where a young person stares at a certificate they earned honestly and wonders what comes next, because “next” costs money they do not have. That silence sits in homes across all nine provinces every single year. It is the gap between potential and opportunity, and it swallows more futures than most of us care to count.
Cornerstone Performance Solutions decided to do something about it.
Over the past few years, CPS has provided full bursaries to 100 individuals, covering tuition, learning materials, and student support from enrolment through to completion. Not partial scholarships. Not conditional sponsorships that disappear if you stumble on one assessment. Full bursaries, backed by the same facilitators, the same AI-powered learning platform (CPSLearn), and the same rigorous accredited programmes that CPS delivers to professionals inside South Africa’s biggest banks.
This Youth Day, that investment deserves a closer look.
Why bursaries? Why now?
South Africa’s youth unemployment rate sits at 45.8 percent as of early 2026, according to Statistics South Africa. For those aged 15 to 24, it is even worse: 60.9 percent. Nearly two out of three young people in that age group who want to work cannot find a job. The reasons are structural, systemic, and deeply intertwined with the cost of education. A National Certificate or Higher Certificate is not cheap, and for many families, it is completely out of reach.
CPS has spent 25 years training professionals in banking, insurance, and leadership. They have put more than 28,000 people through accredited programmes. They know what employers actually look for because they work alongside those employers every day. So when the question came up about how to give back, the answer was not vague corporate social responsibility. It was specific: find talented young people who cannot afford formal qualifications, and give them the same education the industry pays thousands of rands for.
The bursary programme spans several programmes across different NQF levels. Bursary recipients have enrolled in CPS’s CHE-accredited Higher Certificate in Banking (HCiB) at NQF Level 5, which has been the most popular choice. Others have taken the QCTO-registered Long-Term Insurance Adviser programme at NQF Level 5, or the CHE-accredited Advanced Certificate in Leadership at NQF Level 6. CPS also runs bursary students through its General Management and Applied Banking programmes, with a specific intake of the latter designed for unemployed candidates.
That last one is worth pausing on. CPS built a specific intake aimed at people who are not yet employed. The curriculum covers the same ground. The difference is that CPS structured it knowing these students would be balancing the pressures of job-hunting, family obligations, and financial stress while studying. The support model reflects that reality.
Real people, real outcomes
Numbers tell one story. But the bursary programme only makes sense when you hear from the people who went through it.
One graduate put it plainly:
The Cornerstone programme has opened doors for me. I managed to secure a contract with Standard Bank, which hopefully will lead to permanent employment.
She went on to explain her background. Going to an institution after matric was not an option because of the situation at home. She was staying with her grandmother, who was struggling with health issues and did not yet qualify for a pension. A community member stepped in and helped her enrol with Cornerstone. The qualification was affordable compared to other institutions, and it changed the trajectory of her life.
That story is not unusual. Another bursary recipient described what the programme meant for their career:
The course has really been beneficial in my career journey. As a new manager, it has given me a strong foundation on how to lead within the financial sector and what things I should be focusing on within the industry that will enhance my career aspirations. The momentum of the course was good and enabled me to still deliver on work while trying to complete the assessments.
What comes through in that quote is not just gratitude but genuine professional growth. This is someone who feels equipped, not just certificated.
A student who completed the Higher Certificate in Banking wrote a heartfelt email to CPS after finishing:
I wanted to take a moment to express my sincere appreciation for the opportunity to complete the Higher Certificate, even though it wasn’t completed within the original timeframe. I am truly grateful for the patience and understanding shown by you and the support staff throughout my learning journey. The flexibility provided allowed me to understand the material thoroughly, ensuring that I gained the knowledge and skills needed. It’s not often that one is given the chance to learn at their own pace and I recognise the value in that approach.
Others spoke about how the programme shifted their thinking in practical, day-to-day ways. One graduate said:
Since completing the bank school programme, I’ve seen a significant improvement in my understanding of financial management and banking operations. The knowledge I have gained has enhanced my ability to analyse financial statements more effectively and make informed decisions that positively impact my work.
Another noted: “This programme enlightened and motivated me so much that I was extremely determined for success in my future endeavours.”
And then there is the student who said simply: “I am so glad that I signed up to do this course. It has made me more empowered and motivated and confident to thrive in my workplace.”
These are not polished PR statements. They are honest reflections from people whose lives shifted because someone decided their potential was worth funding.
What makes the CPS approach different
Plenty of organisations offer bursaries. What separates CPS from most is the support structure that wraps around each student after they enrol.
Every bursary student gets access to CPSLearn, the proprietary learning platform that CPS built over years of working with corporate clients. The platform uses AI to adapt to individual learning patterns, flagging when a student is falling behind and surfacing additional resources when someone is struggling with specific content. It is the same technology used by banking professionals at major banks across South Africa. Bursary students are not getting a watered-down version of anything.
Then there are the facilitators. Multiple testimonials mention specific CPS staff members by name, praising their dedication and personal investment. One student credited a student consultant called Siphiwe Khashane directly: “My rating was influenced by the exceptional CPS team. Siphiwe Khashane has been very helpful and made my learning experience easier.” Another wrote: “The support team were very helpful with assisting us with assignments, which I appreciate. I’m happy with everything.” A third simply said: “The facilitators were engaging and very helpful.”
This is not an automated system pushing people through assessments. Real humans are checking in, following up, and refusing to let students disappear into the gap between enrolment and completion.
One student put it bluntly: “Nothing you could’ve done better. Learning through CPS has not been easy but I have managed to achieve good results through the activities and learning material.” That honesty is telling. The programmes are not a rubber stamp. They are challenging, and students earn their results.
The completion data backs this up. CPS tracks each student’s individual progress down to the assessment level, which tells you something about how seriously they take outcomes over enrolment numbers.
The bigger picture: Youth Day and what it actually means
Youth Day commemorates June 16, 1976, and the students of Soweto who risked everything to demand a better education. Fifty years on, the obstacles look different but the core issue has not changed. Access to quality education in South Africa is still profoundly unequal. Where you are born, what your family earns, and which province you grow up in continue to shape whether you get a shot at a meaningful career.
CPS cannot fix that inequality alone. No single organisation can. But what they can do, and what they have done, is take a concrete, measurable step. One hundred bursaries. Students in Gauteng, the Western Cape, the Eastern Cape, Limpopo, KwaZulu-Natal, the Free State, and Mpumalanga. Not a pilot programme or a once-off initiative, but an ongoing commitment backed by the infrastructure of a 25-year-old education provider that already trains professionals at the highest levels of South African banking and insurance.
One bursary recipient, Kwezilomso Jaji, captured it well in a note to CPS management:
I would like to express my gratitude to the CPS management for choosing me to be one of the bursary programme recipients. It gave me a chance to develop my business skills and deepen my understanding of the banking industry. Thank you for the contribution you have made to my life.
That is what Youth Day should sound like in practice. Not just remembering the sacrifices of 1976, but answering the question those sacrifices were really asking: will you give young people a fair chance?
Beyond the certificate
Something the testimonials reveal, quietly but consistently, is that the impact of these programmes goes further than the qualification itself.
Students talk about confidence. They talk about understanding how banks actually work, not just performing tasks but grasping the systems behind them. One graduate noted: “Through these learnings, I have realised that it is very important to understand what you are doing in your workplace and to give better solutions to your clients.” Another described the practical impact: “I have drastically decreased my error rate and I manage my time more efficiently thanks to the Banking Programme.”
This is vocational education done properly. It does not just hand someone a certificate and wish them luck. It builds the kind of practical, industry-specific knowledge that makes a graduate genuinely useful to an employer from day one. And in a country where employers frequently complain that graduates are not work-ready, that matters enormously.
One student who completed the programme said they would “recommend the course for everyone working in middle management and up. It brings so much perspective and prepares one for what banking will look like in the future.” Another reflected that the course gave them “a better understanding before I can move to being a financial advisor.”
CPS designed these qualifications in partnership with the banking and insurance industries. The curriculum reflects what those industries actually need, not what an academic committee imagined they might need five years ago. For bursary students entering the job market for the first time, that alignment between education and employment is the difference between getting hired and getting overlooked.
Looking forward
CPS has not positioned this bursary programme as a finished project. New intakes continue to enrol, with the most recent cohorts starting in early 2026. The programmes span multiple NQF levels, meaning students can potentially start at Level 5 and progress to Level 6, building a career pathway rather than collecting a single standalone certificate.
For young South Africans looking at the job market in 2026, the challenge has not gotten easier. But what CPS has shown, through 100 bursaries and counting, is that the talent is there. The willingness to study is there. The capacity to succeed is absolutely there. What is often missing is simply the opportunity.
This Youth Day, CPS is not making a speech about the future. They are building it, one bursary at a time.
