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Igniting Opportunity through Education

The Tertiary School in Business Adminstration (TSiBA) is a unique private, not for profit business school that helps people who cannot access opportunities to jump ahead in life. TSiBA does this by providing emerging leaders an opportunity to study high quality, accredited academic courses that are focused on developing entrepreneurship and leadership. Our aim is to provide excellent business education for people with a social conscience who have the desire and the skills to build our nation. For this reason, we do not require our students to pay us back for their scholarships but rather to Pay it Forward.

TSiBA was founded in 2004 with a vision to “Ignite Opportunity”. Their mission is to be an innovative learning community that graduates entrepreneurial leaders who ignite opportunity and social change.

TSiBA is registered and accredited with the Department of Education as a private higher education institution (No: 2007/HE08/001). TSiBA is also registered as a Public Benefit Organisation (No: 930014613). TSiBA currently has an urban campus in Pinelands, Cape Town and a rural campus, TSIBA Eden, in the town of Karatara, near Knysna. Two further replications are planned for Gaborone (Botswana) and Stellenbosch (Western Cape).

Education with a difference

Three of our founding members:

Adri Marais – CEO
Adri Marais is a co-founder of TSiBA. As CEO, she is responsible for providing strategic direction, leadership and ultimate accountability for the institution. Adri has an MSc in Biochemistry and an MBA.

Leigh Meinert – Executive Director
Leigh Meinert is a co-founder of TSiBA. She is focused on sustainability and growing an endowment in order to ensure that TSiBA has the necessary funding to keep on doing the amazing work they are doing in education. Leigh holds a BA in Value and Policy Studies from Stellenbosch University and is currently pursuing Master’s studies in Higher Education at UCT.

Gia Whitehead – Sustainability Director
Gia Whitehead is a co-founder of TSiBA and holds the role of Sustainability Director. She is responsible for fundraising through CSI and Enterprise Development and building TSiBA’s endowment through the TSiBA Sustainability Fund. She has a Bachelor of Information Technology and postgraduate diploma in Enterprise Management at UCT.

Igniting Opportunity through Education

Education with a difference

Three of our founding members:

Igniting Opportunity through Education

TSiBA offers the following fully accredited courses:

CPBA – Certificate in Practical Business Administration (Eden campus only)

This is a one-year Further Education and Training (FET) course that is accredited at National Qualifications Framework (NQF) level 4 by the Services Sector Education and Training Authority (SETA). The aim of this course is to prepare students for the formal workplace and, for this reason, the programme includes a significant practical component.

HCBA – Higher Certificate in Business Administration (Eden and Cape Town campuses)

To address the often challenging transition between high school and tertiary level studies, students typically start their careers at TSiBA by registering for the NQF Level 5 Higher Certificate in Business Administration (HCBA). This qualification serves as a bridging year that helps our students jump into their potential to be commercially active leaders and entrepreneurs of the future.

BBA – Bachelor of Business Administration (Cape Town campus only)

The BBA degree in Entrepreneurial Leadership has been developed to address the industry need for employable graduates and entrepreneurs. The TSiBA BBA has a strong experiential learning component with practical work and field experience forming an integral part of the curriculum. Systems thinking, problem solving, creativity and ethics underpin all subjects and learning.

PG Dip SEC – Post Graduate Diploma in Small Enterprise Consulting

(Cape Town campus only from 2013 onwards)

PG Dip SEC is a new qualification (NQF level 8) that aims to equip individuals with the necessary coaching and mentoring skills to help entrepreneurs be more successful and for their businesses to survive in a competitive market. The 18-month course will enable individuals to apply entrepreneurial skills at a practical level and offer leadership guidance to create the entrepreneurial survival spirit.

Education is not only about transferring knowledge. The TSiBA experience integrates personal development with business learning and provides a wide variety of experiential learning opportunities through coordinated internships, mentorship, leadership, entrepreneurship and career management programmes that are core to our offering. Our small student numbers and extensive networks enable us to ignite a world of opportunity for each individual who studies with us. This model facilitates the development of well rounded, emotionally intelligent graduates.

Profile of Graduateness

Our unique Profile of Graduateness places attitude at the heart of a student’s development and layers skills and knowledge around this. We seek to ensure that our students are equipped not only for further study and the working world, but are also provided with practical opportunities to incubate and manage businesses whilst studying.

Pay it Forward

The guiding philosophy of TSiBA is embodied in the concept of “Pay it Forward” and this is an important part of our culture. Students who are awarded scholarships are not required to pay for their education monetarily, but rather to “Pay it Forward” by transferring the knowledge, skills and resources that they gain at TSiBA to their communities. In this way, TSiBA’s vision of “Igniting Opportunity” is realised.

Leadership and Entrepreneurship

TSiBA’s aim is to develop leaders and entrepreneurs who will take South Africa forward. Entrepreneurship and Leadership are therefore the major subjects in our degree programme. We also create opportunities to practice leadership and entrepreneurship every day. Built into the curriculum in all our courses are numerous opportunities to begin a business and make a difference in others people’s lives whilst still studying. Our Ignition Centres oversee a range of services that we offer the communities in which our campuses are based. Our students also run a number of clubs and societies such as Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) and Peer Education that ignite opportunity and learning.

Igniting Opportunity through Education

Why Support Us

Help us to grow TSiBA into an initiative that our city, our province, our country, and indeed, even the world, can be proud of. Together we can, and will, ignite opportunity.

Your tax-deductible donation be dedicated towards a specific project, student or it can help us to grow the TSF that will help sustain TSIBA to fulfil its mission, “To be an innovative and sustainable learning community that graduates business leaders who ignite opportunity and social change.” We encourage you to consider including TSiBA in your will or estate plan.

A number of organisations and individuals also contribute to TSiBA’s work through in-kind donations of goods and services or by volunteering time.

Give us Your Time

One of the core aspects of TSiBA is the model of volunteerism. Many of our lecturers, mentors and tutors are volunteers who give of their time each week throughout the TSiBA year.

At TSiBA there are three ways to volunteer:

Academic Volunteers

Volunteers are recruited into our Curriculum Team as lecturers or tutors. Through this model, we are able to combine the theoretical knowledge imparted as part of the curriculum with the industry knowledge and experience of the volunteer. This enables us to enrich the students’ experience.

Mentors and Support Services Volunteers

Volunteers are recruited into our Student Support Team primarily as mentors, but also as additional support resources that are made available to our students (e.g. doctors, dentists etc). The mentorship programme is a key element of our offering and is firmly embedded within our culture and enables each of our students a chance to enhance their self-development and leadership skills.

Resource Volunteers

TSiBA Cape Town is often in need of additional assistance in the business and operational side of our organisation and recruits volunteers who are willing to give of their time to assist us in the operations of TSiBA as a whole e.g.: assisting cataloguing books in our library, invigilating exams, distribution of materials, stock take etc. Given the importance of the various roles played by volunteers within our business, TSiBA Education does require all volunteers – particularly those involved with lecturing, tutoring and mentoring – to participate in induction and development sessions through the year.

We offer a monthly volunteer briefing session on the last Thursday of every month at 08:30. Please contact info@tsiba.org.za if you would like to book a seat and our next session or if you would like to volunteer.

Our Wish List

Below is a wishlist of items that will greatly assist in helping us Ignite Opportunity:

Digital camera
Flash disks for students
Used novels to give to students to take home to create a culture of reading
Sponsorship for our supper and exam taxi club: This support goes towards helping students who study on campus in the evening and need help to get home after dark.
Sponsorship of software upgrade of our library
Kindle
Mugs
Ice trays

If you are able to donate any of these or wish to sponsor purchasing some of these items, please contact info@tsiba.org.za