Stadio Holdings

STADIO HOLDINGS

Stadio Holdings CEO Chris Vorster

STADIO HOLDINGS

Education Central to the

Future of the Nation PRODUCTION: William Denstone

Supporting three prestigious institutions, which collectively offer over 90 accredited programmes, Stadio Holdings is an investment company focussing solely and exclusively on facilitating access to private higher education, currently opening up access to more than 35,000 students. For CEO Chris Vorster, the aim is clear: “We believe in the power of education to transform our nation,” he declares. www.enterprise-africa.net / 3

INDUSTRY FOCUS: EDUCATION

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For Stadio Holdings, everything is centred around facilitating access to higher education, through a quality teaching and learning ethos where student success is the top priority.

“The time to do something great for South Africa is now,” begins CEO Chris Vorster. “That’s why we’ve united our collective experience with one goal: to empower the nation by widening access to higher education.”

It is no secret that South Africa’s universities are among some of the best in the world. The QS World University Rankings 2019 featured nine South African universities, with the highest international ranking position claimed by the University of Cape Town, at joint 200th. The

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University of the Witwatersrand, or Wits, came next at joint 381st, followed by Stellenbosch University just outside of the top 400.

Three more South African universities make it into the world’s top 800, namely the University of Pretoria, the University of Johannesburg and the University of Kwazulu-Natal, while 13 feature in the 2019 rankings of the bestperforming universities in the five BRICS countries: Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. South African legislation does not allow private higher education institutions to be recognised as universities, however the Stadio Group is already in the top ten universities within South Africa in terms of size.

ALL-ENCOMPASSING INSTITUTION Recognising the calibre of the historic centres of learning in the country, Vorster outlines how Stadio has always been geared toward honing and crafting offerings which take on and, ultimately, overtake, the established order. “Stadio Holdings was founded in 2017, and acquired seven higher education brands,” he tells us. “The strategy was then to condense this down into three distinct brands, of which two are AFDA, which operates in the film and creative space, and Milpark, which includes CA Connect, focusing on accounting and financial services. These remain independent higher education institutions and will follow a product excellence strategy tailored to them specifically.

STADIO HOLDINGS

“We have consolidated the four remaining brands into what we have branded Stadio Higher Education,” he says of this conglomeration of four highly prestigious institutions: Embury Institute for Higher Education, LISOF, Prestige Academy and Southern Business School; this latter was founded by Vorster.

“This is where we want to establish this comprehensive, allencompassing institution with multifaculties and schools, and multitude modes of delivery. Our goal is to position Stadio in such a way that we can go toe-to-toe with the big public universities in South Africa - we are already bigger than some of these and, should legislation in South Africa change, we are well-positioned to

achieve university status.”

Its proven ability to offer the pinnacle of tertiary teaching through such a mix of both contact and remote learning methods stood Stadio in excellent stead to fend off the sorts of challenges which scuppered many during the COVID-19 pandemic. “We are very cognisant of the shifting higher education landscape,” Vorster, who, having started in his current role on 1st April 2020, could hardly be more wellplaced to comment on the rigmarole of the pandemic, details.

“In the Stadio Holdings group only 20% of our student population was following typical, contact learning. With 80% of our student population already studying via

online and distance learning it was much easier for us to deal with the sudden shift to remote learning as a full-time provision. The most significant adjustment that we had to make was from a final assessment point of view, away from the expected traditional sitting of exams.

“It was, in fact, the contact learners that presented us with the biggest challenge,” Vorster counters, “but this was assuaged greatly by our already having in place a ready-made platform, as well as much expertise, from our existing distance learning, which we could use to move the contact learners onto. The massive efforts on the part of our staff to achieve this enabled us to attain

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INDUSTRY FOCUS: EDUCATION

what, at one stage, looked like the impossible feat of ensuring that all projects and assignments were completed as scheduled within the academic year.”

STUDENT SHAREHOLDERS FIRST The quality and ease of this transition was a major factor behind Stadio’s reporting a 10% jump in enrolments, to some 35,031 students, for the period ended December 2020. Over the same period, distance learning students grew by 12% to 28,664 students, while contact learning students also grew by 3% to 6,367 students.

“We were able to successfully complete the 2020 academic year on time with drop-out figures of 2.5% for contact learning and 6.1% for distance learning, the lowest since we started with operations in 2017,” Vorster unravels, a hugely pleasing growth in student numbers given the extreme conditions faced throughout the year. “Stadio is considered a leader in distance learning, which gained further traction during the year.”

Waterfall (Midrand)

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In another landmark for the country, Stadio has just become South Africa’s first higher education institution to make its students shareholders. “We are very excited about this initiative; it really feels like we are onto something special,” Vorster beams. “It came about from seeking an answer to private institutions never receiving the same support from their alumni as with public universities.

“Take a UCT or a Wits, for example - their alumni really give back, to a completely different degree to us and other private institutions.

The long, 150-year histories of these universities is clearly impossible to replicate in a short period of time, but to get around this we sought an alternative way that we could partner with our students for life.

“We are empowering our learners by giving them qualifications that we believe to be of the very highest quality and perfectly aligned with the world of work. This is crucial for us, but secondly we are empowering

them to start building up their own portfolio of wealth, to bring the sometimes seemingly unattainable world of investing closer to our students, whilst continuing to upskill them through the provision of training and courses following their graduation. The challenge for us is to meet all their lifelong learning needs and this share scheme is one such way that we can further empower our students beyond their studies.

“We want to foster that environment whereby parents, grandparents, children - all are channelled through the institution that their predecessors attended.” The Stadio Khulisa Student Share Scheme has already seen postgraduate alumni issued with shares worth R1000, with around 1,200 to receive similar in each year to come. “For us it is a significant step in really putting our students on the track of opening up the financial market, and a new world, to them. We are giving back to our students through this groundbreaking initiative.”

STADIO HOLDINGS

Durban Musgrave

STRIVING FOR EXCELLENCE Vorster’s ‘WWS’ acronym neatly summates the three pillars on which, for him, the entire programme is built, and the third stands for what he terms the ‘student-centred experience.’ “The first W refers to widening access,” he explains. “The legacy in South Africa is of huge numbers having been excluded, whether for political reasons or simply due to very poor schooling at secondary level, preventing their entry into further education. We are putting in place infrastructure to overcome this historic issue.

“Our alignment with the world of work is the second of these key focuses, and we are driving it incredibly hard. We have industry involvement through every step of the journey, from the programme development phase to guest lectures and seminars in our classrooms, then to the moderation of the programme and, finally, to help get our graduates employed.”

It was revealed in September that the first phase of Stadio’s Centurion mega-campus, a comprehensive multi-school campus had been completed. With investments of around R223 million, the facility will provide support for distance learning students and cater for contact learning, as these numbers return to pre-pandemic levels.

“There was an existing structure there that we bought,” details Johan Human, Stadio COO, “but it was far from complete, and originally designed for a very different purpose. We are working with Triple3 Construction in this ambitious project, who exude a real sense of Continues on page 11

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TRIPLE 3 GROUP: REALISE YOUR VISION Triple 3 Group is the construction partner for the new R220 million Stadio Holdings campus in Centurion. This new site is a symbol of hope for the country’s higher education sector.

Triple 3 Group is home to an industry-leading offering in the consulting engineering, project management, construction, and turn-key property development industries. Established to provide high-quality results for clients, while also benefiting the wider communities in which it operates, this engineering, project management, and construction specialist is working hard to build lasting relationships.

In Centurion, Triple 3 worked alongside educational investment business Stadio Holdings to build a new 14,000m2 campus designed to provide space for the training of new teachers as well as a school of commerce and other courses. Triple 3 had to bring a suite of services to the table for this project as the nature of the development was around rejuvenating an existing structure while revitalising the entire site. By employing the very best contractors and working hand-inglove with Stadio Holdings, Triple 3 highlights this project as a major success.

“Our focus is on a holistic project solution that integrates the processes from inception to completion to ensure successful delivery,” says CEO Gawie le Roux.

“As a group founded on the principles of integration, we recognise that each project plays a role in the world beyond our clients’ objectives. We bring a tailor-made and integrated approach to each project through our centralised project management office. In all our project management solutions, we give you peace of mind in knowing that your project is in the hands of industry experts. Our diverse professional network of specialists operates within the built environment, enabling us to offer our clients the best possible solution to any problem. The simplest solutions are often the best. By minimising the contact points involved in a project, we streamline processes and simplify the entire experience.”

The R220 million development was planned pre-Covid and had to change method midcontract, changing from a large single build to a phased approach. Rather than panicking and allowing the challenges of such a concept to take over, le Roux and team quickly adjusted and worked hard to meet the needs of the client.

“Triple 3 was involved in the conceptualisation of this new campus,” says Stadio Holdings COO, Johan Human. “It was an existing structure that we purchased but it was far from complete and designed to be something very different from the 14,000m2 campus that we are completing.

Triple 3 is completing the construction and full engineering. They are unique as they have a whole host of sub-contractors with very specialised skills that are managed very well.

“I really appreciate their openness as a contractor to partner and not just build something generic. There is a sense of partnership around doing something excellent for the client.

“They have worked extensively in the education industry and they understand the space in which education takes place,” he adds.

Stadio moved its operations from Bank Avenue and will officially open its new facility in the New Year, although students are already on site. Student accommodation will soon be opened on the adjacent site and other Stadio developments are in the pipeline as the company looks to upscale its student numbers over the next few years. Triple 3 will remain the contractor of choice for any complex construction projects.

“Our service excellence is made possible through our client-centric approach, driven by innovation and full collaboration between Triple 3, our unique BE Network and you,” says le Roux. www.triple3.co.za | +27 (0) 10 745 1333 | +27 (0) 82 445 2073 | info@triple3.co.za

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STADIO HOLDINGS

Waterfall (Midrand)

Continued from page 7 partnership which is, in my long experience in the education space, quite unique in a contractor.

“Triple3 was incredibly accommodating in helping us to find solutions, even when we had to pause the whole undertaking at

// STADIO IS CONSIDERED A LEADER IN DISTANCE LEARNING, WHICH GAINED FURTHER TRACTION DURING THE YEAR //

the height of the pandemic.” Human says, “and even though the site is incomplete, from the outside it looks both beautiful and functional. This is quite a feat, and only possible through Triple3’s support, flexibility and willingness to go the extra mile.”

The campus will accommodate around 3,000 students on a purposedesigned site when complete, scheduled for 2022.

Vorster stresses the importance now of tying together the various strands which will combine to allow Stadio to succeed in its quest to help the nation learn and flourish. “My goal now is to consolidate all that we have underway, and then to put down the blueprint for growth to come,” he replies. “I want to see the 47 programmes we have in development

accredited, and then to set out a concrete infrastructure for contact learning and distance learning.”

“Our target is to reach the magic 56,000 student mark which we have set for the company, before 2026.”

With so much already accomplished in such a short space of time, there appears to be little in the way of Stadio reaching a different class of higher education. “Our vision ultimately is to be a leading Higher Education provider, accommodating 100,000 students over time - to be a new vision in higher education,” Vorster concludes.

WWW.STADIO.CO.ZA

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