Banking Sector Education and Training Authority (BANKSETA)

BANKSETA, the Banking Sector Education and Training Authority, looks after skills development for banks and the wider microfinance sector. The Skills Development Act created a levy-grant scheme and 21 sector-specific SETAs to run it, and BANKSETA administers the share that belongs to banking.

Registered name

Banking Sector Education and Training Authority (BANKSETA)

Type

Sector Education and Training Authority

Fields funded

Banking, finance and IT qualifications; learnerships for unemployed youth

Website

bankseta.org.za

Email

info@bankseta.org.za

Phone

011 805 9661

Where BANKSETA’s money comes from

Employers in the sector pay the skills development levy, and BANKSETA returns part of it as Mandatory Grants to levy-paying employers who train their own staff. BANKSETA spends the rest through Discretionary Grants on targeted projects, which is the pot that pays for bursaries, learnerships and partnerships with universities. BANKSETA publishes discretionary funding windows periodically rather than on one fixed date.

BANKSETA names its focus areas as small and medium enterprises, young people, adult education, continuous professional development and research. For students, that focus shows up in two ways: funding routed through universities, and learnerships that place unemployed young people in banks.

Kuyasa and Letsema: two learnerships with different entry points

The Kuyasa learnership takes unemployed IT graduates into the banking sector. BANKSETA opens the Kuyasa intake between July and October and closes it at the end of October for a programme starting in February. Letsema brings unemployed matriculants into banking; BANKSETA and partner banks recruit mainly between July and September, although some intakes open at other times.

A graduate with an IT diploma and a school leaver with only matric should therefore look at different programmes. Neither learnership had a confirmed 2027 closing date when BursariesAfrica checked.

University funding through partners

BANKSETA also pays for students through university funding windows. At the Cape Peninsula University of Technology, for example, BANKSETA money supports IT students, and CPUT collects applications earlier than BANKSETA’s own window, which has historically closed in late January.

Check any BANKSETA opportunity on bankseta.org.za or with the partner institution before applying, because third-party sites often repeat old learnership adverts. BANKSETA’s head office is in Centurion, and the SETA reports to the Department of Higher Education and Training.

Students interested in banking careers can compare BANKSETA’s programmes with the banks on our Commerce Bursaries page.