The programme seeks to achieve the following with its participants:

• Achieve financial knowledge and skills transfer through the various channels.
• Use the knowledge and skills to influence changes in attitudes to finances and financial behaviour.
• Improve long-term financial capability and resilience, through better financial management and improved financial inclusion. 

• Several studies have shown that financial education programmes for employees may lead to a more engaged and effective workforce by reducing financial stress and improving employee morale and productivity.
• Within worksites, strains on employees’ finances mean they often cannot pay for their children’s education, save for retirement or cope with unforeseen emergencies. Workers are often heavily financially indebted.
• This financial stress impacts employees’ health, productivity levels and absenteeism, which directly affect employers.
• Independent monitoring and evaluation conducted since 2015 has shown that at least two thirds of WageWise participants will make at least one significant change to their financial choices and behaviours.
• These changes lead to positive results for programme participants, as well as their households.
• The programme is offered free of charge.

Click here to view an Infographic on the contribution of WageWise to the financial resilience of its participants.

Click here to view the programme brochure. 

In-person, interactive workshops are the primary learning channel. The rapport with the facilitators is a key component of the success of this channel. Workshops are conducted by facilitators who are drawn from the communities, they can communicate in local languages and understand cultural dynamics of the communities where they conduct the workshops. 

The workshops are supplemented with auxiliary channels including SMSs, educational handouts and social media to reinforce the content and nudge participants to apply what they have learnt in the training.

Workshop options:

• 6-hour workshop – this full workshop includes the full training curriculum.
• 3-hour workshop – this option is best suited for worksites, where employers are not able to release their workers for a full day of training. This condensed version of the training is impactful but covers a more limited curriculum.
• 4-hour workshop – this is a new option intended for worksites that want their workers to be trained on the condensed curriculum as well as a detailed retirement module including the new Two-Pot Retirement System. This is an ideal option for worksites that cannot accommodate the full 6-hour training.
• 3-hour Refresher training - this is a new addition and intended for worksites where employees previously completed the 3-hour workshops, but employers now want their workers to receive training on retirement and the Two-Pot Retirement System. The workshop content will include a refresher on the initial workshop content and the additional retirement module.

 Content 

The following content is covered in the workshops

Supporting communications channels

• SMSs: A series of SMSs are sent to workshop participants to act as reminders and nudges to reinforce call to actions on key topics that are shared in the workshops. Several of the SMSs include data free links, to the WageWise website for users to access additional and richer content. The SMSs are free to participants.
• Post workshop handouts: All participants receive a comprehensive manual with all the content and tools to assist them to adopt and apply the learnings.
• Social media and website: The WageWise Facebook page and the website offer additional and richer information and opportunities for further engagement with the content.

The evaluation reports have found the WageWise programme to be coherent with South African policies, as there is a focus on workforce financial capability and resilience through financial education. Participants have reported positive experiences with the face-to-face interactive workshops, and the trainers have also noted smooth workshop execution, with high participant engagement being observed.

In 2022 a multi-year impact study commenced with a cohort of participants. The midline report released in 2023 indicated the following:

• An overall improvement in budgeting behaviour with improved tracking of expenditure behaviour.
• An increase in the overall savings behaviour of respondents and many indicated that the knowledge gained from the training has helped them cope better in a financial emergency.
• An increase in the number of respondents who felt more comfortable negotiating interest rates on their debt.
• The top three behaviours that were consistently reported as actions taken in the monthly surveys were budgeting, sharing the WageWise learning with family and friends and opening a savings account to start saving.

Reach and programme highlights from 2015 to 2023

Watch the video

WageWise contributes to the following United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and National Development Plan (NDP) clusters through the programmes key performance indicators.

The SDGs align to the following NDP clusters:

• SDG 1 aligns with the Equality cluster
• SDG 4 aligns with the Education cluster
• SDG 5 and 10 align with the Equality cluster
• SDG 17 aligns with the Partnership cluster