Barclays Bank has partnered with the Higher Educations Loans Board to launch a series of mentorship programmes targeting university students across Kenya. This is part of the continuing scholarship programme launched by the bank in September last year.
The academic readiness workshops are aimed at equipping students with the necessary skills to continue performing well in school and mainly targets the students under the Barclays scholarship initiative. The programme targets to reach over 600 students across the country through the 2-hour long training workshops.
The bank is partnering with a South African-based international education agency called Elevate to deliver the training across the Barclays African markets. In Kenya, the programme targets deserving undergraduate students pursuing different courses in local universities and is implemented in partnership with the Higher Education Loans Board.
“In order to prepare these students for the productive stay at the universities and to prepare them for the future, we have gone a step further to organize engagement workshops at a number of campuses around the country,” said Yusuf Omari, the Barclays Bank of Kenya chief finance officer. “Through this programme, we aim to change learning behavior and inspire students to achieve their potential, which for many leads to breaking the poverty cycle.”
Among others, the programme delivers increased student self-efficacy which fosters independent learning, increased student efficiency and therefore improved well-being during key stress periods as well as increased motivation levels across the year. The programme also aims to improve the caliber of students graduating from universities and achieve a sustained behavioral shift in the students’ study habits while equipping students with essential academic and non-academic skills.
“The engagement workshops also provide a feedback mechanism to help us keep the scholarship programme relevant,” said Omari.
On his part, the HELB chief executive officer Charles Ringera said: “Providing education is not enough. What is important, and what generates a real return on investment, is learning and acquiring skills. This is what truly builds human capital. Without learning, students will be locked into lives of poverty and exclusion, and the children whom societies fail the most are those most in need of a good education to succeed in life.”
About the #BBKScholarship
The Barclays Scholarship programme is as part of the Africa-wide scholarship initiative spearheaded by the Barclays Africa Group C.E.O Maria Ramos. This is part of the group’s wider agenda to provide education and skills to needy but bright undergraduate students.
Through the programme, Barclays Bank Kenya has so far provided university fees to 470 students who are selected from across the 47 counties. Out of this number, 256 are males while 214 are female student. Among these are 251 orphans, 116 from single household families, 26 PLWDs students while 104 are from households where both parents are poor, including staff dependents.
Apart from providing university fees, Barclays has organized a series of academic readiness workshops to equip students with skills necessary for them to continue performing well in school.
These workshops are facilitated by an agency called Elevate which has been contracted by Barclays Africa Group Limited to deliver the training across the Barclays African market. Elevate is an award-winning international education company that has spent the last 16 years training students to use best-practice study skills working with more than 2,500 schools and 500,000 students each year.
Elevate equips students with the skills they need to succeed in school and beyond. Elevate also trains teachers and parents / guardians to ensure best-practice study behaviours are reinforced across the classroom and at home
