Tiso Foundation
TF is a public benefit and non-profit organisation that was founded in 2001. Since July 2011, TF’s mission and vision has been to enable young black South Africans to reach their full potential through its focus on tertiary education and skills development, through artisan training, bursaries and scholarship programmes. TF has funded the technical trade training of 148 artisans and tertiary education for 23 students through its Artisan Development Programme and Tertiary Bursary Programme respectively. These two well-established and successful programmes are supplemented by two newer initiatives – namely the Archibald Mafeje Scholarship for Advanced Study (where four scholarships were awarded), and the University of Cambridge Global Leader’s Programme (where two scholarships were awarded this year).
The Artisan Development Programme was established in 2009 to offer artisanal and trade training to capable young people from disadvantaged backgrounds. This feeds into the main objective of preparing them to join the workplace and contribute to the growth of our economy. To this end TF has partnered with the Artisan Training Institute (ATI) who offers training for critically needed technical skills and trades, including electricians, diesel mechanics, boilermakers, welders and millwrights. Over the next three years the programme aims to meet its target of 500 skilled and qualified artisans of which at least half will be black women. To date through partnerships with the Aveng Community Investment Trust, Bell Equipment and KTH, the Foundation has trained a total of 268 learners.
To promote our country’s youth and academic achievers from marginalised communities, TF identifies deserving previously disadvantaged scholarship candidates with the requisite talent and determination to succeed in their chosen fields of study. Candidates must also demonstrate their academic prowess prior to selection. TF looks to support 20 students per year through partnerships with tertiary institutions as part of the Tiso Foundation Tertiary Bursary Programme.
Students are given both financial and qualitative life skills support, and work together with students to assist them to find and access career opportunities. This year 23 bursaries were awarded as part of the Tertiary Bursary Programme. TF, in partnership with the University of the Witwatersrand, has initiated the Tiso Foundation Archibald Mafeje Scholarship for Advanced Study. The programme commemorates one of South Africa’s most acclaimed academics, the late anthropologist and intellectual Professor Mafeje. This programme seeks to increase the number and quality of black doctoral graduates across disciplines. The first two scholarships were awarded in 2014 and two more scholarships were awarded in 2015.