Mbali Nhuku and Reuben Rietoff with Kirshni Totaram, Coronation's global head of institutional business. (Photo: Supplied / Coronation)
South Africa has a savings problem, a youth unemployment problem and, too often, a money education problem.
This is the awkward triangle into which school investment challenges are trying to squeeze a small but practical wedge: giving young people a safe place to make money decisions before those decisions involve actual rent, actual debt, actual salaries or actual regret.
Two current competitions, the Coronation Top Investor Challenge: Schools Edition and the JSE Investment Challenge, are part game, part classroom, part career window. Both use simulated investing to introduce learners to markets, risk, decision-making and the discipline of thinking beyond the instant reward.
The Coronation challenge, now in its second year, is open to high school learners across SA and offers R120,000 in prizes. Learners participate in teams, receive a virtual pot of money and make investment choices based on future scenarios presented through short videos. The team whose portfolio grows the most by the end of the challenge wins.
The JSE Investment Challenge, which began on 16 March and closes on 15 September 2026, gives high school learners and university students a virtual R1-million portfolio to invest in JSE-listed shares in a simulated trading environment that mirrors real stock market conditions.
The point of both is to turn markets from something foggy, frightening and adult into something young people can prod, question and begin to understand.
Kirshni Totaram, Coronation’s global head of institutional business, says last year’s challenge revealed how powerful teachers can be in breaking down the intimidation factor around investing.
“I was very impressed with the interest level that we actually had last year,” Totaram said. “There is a heavy correlation between a teacher who’s very interested and excited about this opportunity and that filtering through to the number of teams that a school enters.”
Last year, Coronation had 292 teams and just under 1,000 learners registered. Some schools entered as many as 20 teams, largely because enthusiastic teachers encouraged learners, helped them with the concepts and used the glossary of terms in the game as part of classroom learning.
For Totaram, that matters because many learners are encountering investment concepts for the first time.
“Teachers can play a huge role in actually just breaking down this barrier and this anxiety or concern or fear that students may feel around approaching something that’s completely foreign and they’ve never heard of,” she told Daily Maverick.
This year, Coronation has tried to reduce some of the barriers. The challenge will run from 1 June to 31 July 2026, giving learners almost two months, including the June-July school holiday, to complete the competition.
The challenge is free, online and can be played on a phone, tablet or computer. That accessibility is central to the argument for these competitions. Investment management can appear remote or elite, particularly to learners outside traditional feeder schools or families where markets are part of everyday conversation.
Totaram says high school is not too early to start.
“You can never start learning about financial literacy too early,” she said. “The more you talk about money, the earlier you talk about money, about discipline, about budgets, about long-term wealth creation… the easier it is to demystify it.”
That demystification may be the real prize.
A learner who understands the difference between saving and investing, between risk and recklessness, between short-term panic and long-term planning, is better equipped for adulthood whether they become a portfolio manager, a plumber, a doctor, journalist or entrepreneur.
The difference between ‘signal’ and ‘noise’
The Coronation challenge uses imagined future scenarios to teach learners how markets are shaped by information. Totaram says one of the most important lessons embedded in the game is learning to distinguish “signal” from “noise”.
“Signal is relevant information which actually does have an impact on long-term market returns, long-term business returns and trajectories,” she said. “Noise… that would be the very interesting nuggets of information that you want to talk about around a braai, but actually don’t have material, long-term impact on the markets.”
That is not a bad lesson for adults either, especially in a world where investment advice, market panic and crypto miracle stories compete daily for attention on social media.
The challenge also teaches diversification, but not the lazy version of the word. Totaram says learners need to understand that putting everything into one idea may produce a spectacular result once, but can also destroy a portfolio.
“Don’t have all your eggs in one basket, but make sure that your diversification is sensible,” she said. “If you over-diversify, you don’t get adequate returns. If you diversify too little, the risk that you take on in the portfolio is disproportionate to the returns that you could get.”
The JSE challenge works on a similar principle: put participants into a realistic but risk-free market environment and let them learn through decisions rather than theory alone.
The JSE’s first monthly winners for 2026 show how seriously some teams are already taking the task. Team BHK-Rapid Returns from Lethukuthula Secondary School in Gauteng won the March Schools Speculator Portfolio category with growth of 6.10%, while MP 2026 from Mpumelelo Secondary in Mpumalanga won the Schools Equity Portfolio category with portfolio growth of 9.57%.
At university level, FTX3-Hard Margin Callers from the University of Cape Town won the University Speculator Portfolio prize with growth of 12.78%. Team member Alexander van der Walt said the experience cemented his interest in finance and helped him understand how markets react to external events.
“The biggest learning experience for me was understanding how markets react to news and global uncertainty, especially with the recent war. It also pushed me to manage the anxiety that comes with market movements and to stay confident in my decisions over the long term," he noted.
Ralph Speirs, senior CSI officer at the JSE, puts it plainly: “Financial literacy isn’t just a nice to have; it’s one of the most important life skills we can give young people.”
He describes the JSE challenge as a “hands-on learning journey” that puts young South Africans “in the driving seat of their own financial independence”.
Key message
Totaram says one of the key messages is that saving should not be what happens after spending.
“Save first, then spend,” she said. “Don’t try to save what you have left after spending. Spend what you have left after saving.”
She attributes the principle to Warren Buffett, but the point is universal: start early, even with small amounts, because time is the real engine of investing.
For learners, that may mean thinking differently about pocket money, part-time work or future salaries. For SA, it points to a larger question: Could earlier financial education help shift a weak savings culture over time?
Totaram believes it can.
“If we can get people better about discipline around money and the concept of investing, I think we can add multiple positive impacts into society as a whole,” she said.
Career pipeline possibilities
There is also a career pipeline argument.
SA’s youth unemployment crisis means young people need exposure not only to financial concepts, but also to industries they may not know exist. Investment management is often invisible to learners who have never met a fund manager, analyst or trader.
Totaram says Coronation flagged last year’s top five teams with its HR and investment teams, keeping the names on a database in case learners later pursued finance-related studies or reached out for vacation work.
“It could definitely be a pipeline,” she said.
For some learners, the challenge may confirm that finance is not for them as a career, but it will still be a useful life skill. For others, it may turn a mysterious industry into a possible career.
How to enter
Coronation Top Investor Challenge: Schools Edition
The Coronation Top Investor Challenge is open to all high school learners in SA. Learners enter in teams of two to five members, and there is no limit to the number of teams a school may enter. It is free to participate and runs from 1 June to 31 July 2026. Participants can play on a phone, tablet or computer. The top-performing national team wins R60,000 in Coronation investment vouchers, shared equally among team members, and the winning school receives R60,000. Schools and parents can register teams on the Coronation Top Investor Challenge website.
JSE Investment Challenge
The JSE Investment Challenge is open to high school learners and university students. The 2026 competition started on 16 March and closes on 15 September 2026. Teams receive a virtual R1-million portfolio to invest in JSE-listed shares, with categories including school and university portfolios. The challenge is run online in a simulated trading environment designed to reflect actual stock market conditions. DM