Second-year BBusSc management studies student, Sonia Ramautar, is the first candidate to benefit from the SA Business Club's new bursary initiative.

In collaboration with the UCT Trust, the club, an organisation for expatriates in the UK, awards bursaries to promising local business science students. The bursary scheme was launched last year.

Quoted in The South African, a newspaper for expatriates, the club's Rebecca Davis said: "It's been our intention to make some kind of contribution to developing business-minded individuals in South Africa. We're in a good position to do that, being based in the UK."

Ramautar, who hails from Durban, commended organisations like the SA Business Club for working to enrich the lives of South Africans back home.

Once she has completed her articles and qualified as a chartered accountant, she hopes to plough back her expertise back into South Africa.

"It's an amazing coincidence that the SA Business Club is one of the pioneers in materialising my dreams."

The SA Business Club, she says, is more than a sponsor.

"They're an inspiration. I had the privilege of meeting managing director James Durrant of the Blue Sky Group, who took me through the trials and tribulations of his own business. Being a home-grown Capetonian he displays a keen interest in my academic life and in my degree, and even hopes to set up a job shadowing stint at his offices."