“We have been enormously encouraged by the performance of our first intake of university bursars in their mid-year examinations. This helps us to set a sensible benchmark to achieve in terms of the bursars we’d like to find for next year’s intake. Our ability to deliver into our skills development mandate rests in no small part on the success of our bursary scheme going forward,” Joseph Mudau, Gibela’s Economic Development Training Manager said on August 15.
Gibela offers South African students one-year renewable bursaries to study career paths that are in high demand, in an effort to help address the current skills gap in South Africa and to empower students to pursue career paths that would otherwise be out of their reach.
The bursaries are available to young South African students who have completed high school with matric exemption and are in need of financial assistance to further their tertiary studies. In 2016, Gibela awarded bursaries to the value of R12 million to 180 South African students studying at Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVETs) institutions, mainstream universities and universities of technology.
Next year, bursaries will be awarded to 300 students, of which 100 at universities and 200 and TVET institutions. A total of 2 800 bursaries will be awarded over the 10 year duration of the rolling stock contract.
The bursaries are available for students across the country with written acceptance for admission to studying engineering, IT and financial qualifications at national universities, and students studying a range of disciplines at South African TVET institutions. The bursaries are granted to students on a yearly basis, and are renewable through demonstrating good academic performance consistently.
University students can send their applications to Gibela’s appointed recruiter Career Wise, by sending a copy of their curriculum vitae, certified academic records and South African identity document to gibelabursaries@careerwise.co.za. Students who wish to enroll at TVET institutions can apply through sending the same documents to gibelabursaries@communityrail.co.za.
