Absa Bank Seychelles partners with Rhodes University to deliver first-class data journalism training to local journalists |26 November 2020

The journalists with their certificates at the end of the training (Photo source: Absa Bank Seychelles)

Five journalists from a range of media houses have completed a one-day data journalism masterclass hosted by Absa Bank Seychelles in partnership with South Africa’s Rhodes University.

The session took place on Monday this week and was led by Dr Peter Verweij, a world-renowned journalism trainer and academic.

The data journalism masterclass is part of the bank’s on-going commitment of supporting in building the capacity of journalists to report on financial matters more competently.

The course covered handling figures and statistics, writing stories and visualising data using Tableau, Excel and Flourish tools.

The Absa data journalism masterclass is focused on aiding journalists with skills and tools they can use to analyse data to better explain and provide context to news stories.

“Forming partnerships with like-minded organisations to develop solutions that address societal needs is integral to our shared value approach. Rhodes University is one such organisation,” said managing director of Absa Seychelles, Johan Van Schalkwyk, during the opening of the data journalism masterclass.

In a presentation on the bank’s ‘Absa Story’, Amanda Bernstein, head of marketing and corporate at Absa Bank Seychelles, commended the media for supporting financial literacy and finance-related media pieces over the years and pledged the bank’s renewed commitment to building stronger partnerships with the media as the bank continues to evolve on its digital journey.

“We believe in bringing possibilities to life. We are here to help fulfil the ambitions of our customers, communities and stakeholders such as the media. We are sure that the training will have a positive impact on journalists as they work on managing and reporting on local data.”

Since the programme’s inception, over a dozen local journalists have had the opportunity to attend the masterclass.

Press release from Absa Bank Seychelles