Thuthuka Bursary
"An investment in the future" is how Billy Last, LexisNexis CEO describes the company’s donation of R100 000, 00 each year to the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA) Thuthuka Bursary Fund.
LexisNexis believes good corporate citizenship is crucial for the development of the South African economy if it is to become one of the economic ‘tigers’ of the world”, says Last. Effective corporate social responsibility programmes are an important part of corporate citizenship and help us give something back to the communities in which we operate.
As an international publishing house, we focus our social investments in education where we feel we can make the most difference, we have a close relationship with an organisation known as TREE (Training and Resources in Early Education) in KwaZulu-Natal and thanks to SAICA and the Thuthuka Bursary Fund, we are now able to extend our social responsibility programme geographically and into tertiary education”.
The Fund is aimed at creating a greater capacity at undergraduate level and we believe it will help to overcome many of the historical impediments to SAICA’s goal of transforming the accounting profession by actively supporting accounting students throughout their tertiary academic journey.
These hurdles include the lack of awareness about the profession itself amongst the youth, inadequate school subject choice, inadequate standards of education at the so-called historically disadvantaged universities and work/study challenges facing trainee accountants, amongst other issues.
The largest obstacle of all however continues to be a lack of funding which is where companies such as LexisNexis step in. The purpose designed Thuthuka Bursary Fund programme at the main residential universities covers tuition fees, life skills training, additional academic support programmes, mentorship programmes, textbooks, residential fees and a living allowance.
LexisNexis’ donation will support four accounting students at the University of Johannesburg for one year and is in addition to their ongoing support of SAICA’s continuing education students through discounted textbooks. My LexisNexis online is also available free of charge to accounting and law students at various universities.
My LexisNexis offers tailored search facilities and also incorporates an e-mail alert service called Current Awareness.
SAICA’s holistic approach to transformation mirrors LexisNexis’ holistic approach to providing our customers with a total business solution with regard to information, research, risk management and compliance.
LexisNexis is proud of being able to support the Thuthuka Bursary Fund and help SAICA to achieve its objective of transforming the South African accounting profession.