The model
Bursary to Career
The idea is simple: a beneficiary does an accredited bursary while working in the industry for the entire study period. By the end they hold the qualification and the equivalent years of work experience — and they are absorbed by the entity they have been working with, or incubated into a new enterprise they are already qualified to run.
How it works
Five stages from selection to a career.
Selected for drive, not just marks
Candidates are drawn from community youth-mobilisation and volunteer programmes — academically strong young people with a demonstrated humanitarian mindset.
Study and work, in parallel
Beneficiaries complete an accredited UNISA qualification part-time while working in the field for the entire bursary period — a four-year bursary yields four years of experience.
Real experience across real settings
From top private schools to overburdened township schools, from support groups to rehabilitation centres, beneficiaries build skill and resilience across the full spectrum of South African contexts.
Wrapped in support
An intensive learner-support package, life-skills training, mentorship and a monthly stipend keep beneficiaries focused, retained and steadily developing.
Absorbed into a career
By graduation the beneficiary is already experienced, referenced and qualified — and is absorbed into permanent employment by a committed partner, or supported into a new enterprise.
The difference
Most bursaries end at graduation. Ours ends in a career.
A conventional bursary pays tuition and hopes for the best. Too many produce qualified but unemployable graduates with no experience and no references. We built the opposite.
- Works in industry every year of the bursary
- Graduates with a qualification plus years of experience
- Committed permanent employment on completion
- Strong references across multiple workplaces
- Life-skills, mentorship and a monthly stipend throughout
- Enterprise incubation for new-venture pathways
- Study only, with little or no workplace exposure
- Graduates with a qualification but no experience
- No employment pathway after graduation
- Thin or no professional references
- Financial stress drives high dropout rates
- No route into entrepreneurship
Enterprise incubation
Beyond employment: enterprise incubation
Because beneficiaries accumulate genuine operating experience, the strongest are positioned not only for employment but to launch their own ventures — with enough real-world grounding to qualify for and sustain a new enterprise by graduation.
See the partner networkFund graduates who are ready to work.
Tell us the pathways and beneficiary numbers you want to support. We handle selection, placement, management and reporting — you receive employed graduates and auditable B-BBEE and SED value.