Stanlib: Digital programme review

Date of work: 2024

“Trialogue’s report was well done and the findings were helpful in making a decision about the programme.”

Nomaxabiso Matjila, Lead Specialist: Group CSI at Liberty Group

STANLIB’s corporate social investment (CSI) focuses on education and skills development, particularly in digital and financial literacy with a strong emphasis on empowering youth. When it approached Trialogue, STANLIB had been supporting a pilot programme in the Northern Cape for three years called Digify General Practitioners (Digify GPs). The programme was part of STANLIB’s 2022-2024 Socio Economic Development (SED) strategy which was to help unemployed youth with 21st century skills for an increasingly digital world. It aimed to create an ecosystem of young people who were trained and supported with digital skills, creating work opportunities for themselves in digital marketing and social media through freelancing. Digify Africa had identified a gap in the Northern Cape where most businesses did not have a digital presence, and it aimed to empower students to bridge that gap and offer a service to the businesses in the surrounding area. This would help both the business and the student.

Trialogue was engaged to evaluate the Northern Cape pilot programme, to assess both the implementation of the programme and the outcomes achieved. The implementing partner had demonstrated positive impact elsewhere with a stated 95% graduate employment rate in its other programmes which were implemented in major economic centres. However, this evaluation showed that the Northern Cape pilot, whilst well executed, did not manage to replicate the successful outcomes achieved elsewhere. This was attributed largely to the lack of digital skills opportunities in the region. Based on this evaluation, STANLIB decided to discontinue this initiative following the completion of the pilot process.