Bursary Institute of South Africa Makes Education Affordable

The Bursary Institute of South Africa helps to address the educational needs of students in South Africa by providing a bursary program.

bursary institute of south africa
Bursary Institute of South Africa

The Bursary Institute of South Africa helps to address the educational needs of students in South Africa by providing a bursary program that allows students to save, plan and then pay for educational opportunities throughout South Africa. The Institute has established partnerships with a number of learning institutions and provides students access to a large number of courses through their bursary program. The courses cover diplomas and degrees across a wide array of professions. Once all application requirements have been satisfied, students are guaranteed to receive a bursary. The amount of the bursary may range between 25% and 100%.

By establishing a partnership with numerous training colleges, the Institute is able to offer an extensive array of educational opportunities to meet the diversified needs of students throughout South Africa. The objective of The Bursary Institute of South Africa is to help bridge the current gap between today’s youth, schools and the employment sector. Through a belief that education is still a vital element in obtaining access to employment, improved quality of life, economic prosperity and personal fulfillment, the organization hopes to help achieve growth for all citizens of South Africa.

The Institute also works to provide South African youth with services and information regarding post-matric studies, as well as assistance in decision making regarding what and where they should study. As a result of the Institute’s partnership agreements with educational facilities, students are able to study through a college of their choice.

Cornerstone College offer a number of certificate courses, including a three week programs in call center training, inbound call center training, outbound call center training, call center supervisor training and end user computer training.

Birnam Business College is also a partner of the Institute and offers a long list of diploma courses, including courses in banking and business management, information technology, hair and beauty, human resource management, journalism, marketing, medical administration, public relations, sound engineering, travel and advanced early childhood development.

Students receiving bursaries through the Bursary Institute of South Africa can also choose PC Training and Business College, where they can attend training that lasts from three months, six months, one year, two years and three years while pursuing certificates, diplomas and degrees. Courses include business administration, office administration, system development and system support.

The Platinum Campus offers diplomas in tourism, entrepreneurship, management, and certificates in basic financial life skills and business finance. Other training options include comprehensive computer literacy, database design, C++ programming, policing certificate training, electrical engineering, Microsoft administration, networking technician, hospitality and leisure, accounting, paralegal practice, sport administration, and HIV/Aids counseling and management.

During the post-Apartheid era in South Africa, the education system has experienced significant reforms in order that educational opportunities can be distributed more equitably to all citizens. In spite of improvements made in educational levels and literacy rates, significant numbers of young people continue to leave school each year lacking the critical skills necessary compete for employment. Only approximately 15% of the students who wrote final exams in South Africa in 2007 scored high enough in order to automatically qualify to attend university. Many more students remained at home due to in inability to pay expensive tuition fees. The ultimate goal of the Bursary Institute of South Africa is to fill the skills gap by making post school studies accessible at either a reduced cost or no cost through their bursary program.

Through the Institute’s program, students in South Africa gain the chance to further their studies through an FET college of their own choice by selecting a degree or diploma at a price they can afford. The Bursary Institute of South Africa structures a bursary that is specific to each person’s individual needs. Individuals who failed to graduate or dropped out of school are also provided with the opportunity to gain certain bursaries as well. Some bursaries are available for matric re-writes, financial sector and call center qualifications; where a matric pass may not be required. The balance of fees for a degree or diploma after the bursary from the BISA may be paid on installment payments; ensuring education remains affordable and accessible to all learners in South Africa.

Spoornet Bursaries from Transnet

Spoornet bursaries from South Africa are one such example of a great privately offered South African financial assistance program. Here’s why.

spoornet-bursaries
Spoornet Bursaries

Spoornet bursaries at Transnet a South Africa company are one such example of a great privately offered South African financial assistance program, and students should certainly be considering it in their search for monetary aid. Students in South Africa may not have the readily available public bursaries offered in the United Kingdom and Canada, but they do have an abundance of privately offered bursary programs. While many such offered bursaries in South Africa often come with a limited offering to students in a relatively short number of eligible degree programs, the Spoornet bursary sets itself apart by being widely applicable. This has the benefit of being more readily available to students from a diverse academic background but also suffers from the limitation of increasing the applicant pool. Because of the large number of applicants the Spoornet bursary in SA is likely to attract, interested students are encouraged to not only display a strong academic merit but also be able to show their dedication to their chosen career path. In order to increase a student’s chances in getting bursaries at Spoornet, applicants should consider their applications in great depth to make sure that it displays their best attributes, working diligently on all related submission material and seeing to it that what they provide to the selection committee is the best information available.

Large swaths of degree programs are eligible for the Spoornet bursary from bachelor degrees in communications, engineering, computer science or psychology. Targeted learning includes accounting, economics, industrial engineering, electrical engineering, information technology and many more. On top of the wide coverage of various fields, the Spoornet bursary also covers an immense amount of costs. Tuition in its entirety is covered by the program as well as additional costs for books and living expenses. Trips to and from home are also paid for by the program.

Like many other South African bursaries, every year that a student receives financial aid from the Spoornet bursary scheme requires a year of service for the company providing the financial assistance. The large amount of money which the Spoornet bursary covers makes this a fairly equal exchange in the long run and, unless students have other job obligations to another bursary program, should not deter them from applying to the program. As is suggested above, all students who receive a Spoornet bursary program have the option of renewing it in subsequent years so long as their academic progress merits renewal. While the fields to which the bursary can be applied to are indeed many, Spoornet reserves the right to limit what fields they select as priority based on their commercial needs.

Eligibility for bursaries at Spoornet are fairly straight forward. Students must be South African citizens who also attended and graduated from a school within the country. Matriculation grades must be above a C average and students must show a financial need. On the actual application, students will need to provide their academic scores from grade 11 on top of their matriculation scores. Finally, this bursary is mainly available for students who are entering their first year of schooling. If a student meets these criteria, then they should download the application form online and have it submitted by January 31 of the applicable year. Considering the application carefully, a small section is available for students to list the achievement they have made of which they are most proud. As it is such a short section, this is not a moment for a student to go on and on about what they have done and how they have done it. Rather, this area should be reserved for short snippets – awards a students have received, community programs they have been involved in, leadership roles they have taken on and personal objectives a student has set then overcome are all fair game in this area.

The Spoornet bursary from SA is offered by Transnet Freight Rail, a South African train company. Students should consider this as, once they start working off their bursary obligations, they will be working at this company until their bursary debt is paid off. If a student does not have any interest in working in this field, then the Spoornet Bursaries may not be for them. On the other hand, if a student is interested in working at this company, then this should be all means only add to any encouragement they may already have in filling out the application.

South African Bursaries for South Africa Students

Bursaries for South African students are a patchwork of mostly private programs mixed in with some government bursaries and few mixed private/public.

south african bursaries
South African Bursaries

Different from bursary systems common to Europe and Canada, South African bursaries are nonetheless incredibly useful to students in the region offering great awards for those willing to step up to the plate. Bursaries for South African students are a patchwork of mostly private programs mixed in with some government bursaries and then a few mixed private/public collaborations. At first glance it may appear very chaotic, messy in many respects and perhaps difficult to navigate. However, once you’ve learned how South African bursaries tend to work, the system works very well and offers awards that many European or Canadian bursariessimply cannot compare to.

Though South Africa bursaries lack the elegance of the single form bursary application system common in many western countries, available programs are advertised quite readily and many are listed in bursary information packets available at individual universities. Even those that are not listed in such information packets are generally fairly easy to find if a searching student is willing to put in a little bit of time and effort.

Because the number of bursaries offered by the national government is relatively limited, large and even local companies have filled the fiscal void in a way which not only provides students with financial assistance but further helps to ensure that there is a readily available employment pool of skilled workers available for projects around the country. While it could be argued that such a situation works best for companies and less well for financially needy students, with the employment situation and development issues within South Africa it in many ways benefits the country as a whole.

Though the number of South African bursaries available through the government and local entities are limited, they certainly do exist. A first stop for a South African student, as is the same with a student from most Western nations, is their university’s financial aid department. Colleges in South Africa often offer their own bursary schemes for enrolled students whom have shown promising academic progress in their secondary and post secondary educations. These programs, compared to the full rides often offered by large South African companies, are generally fairly small but are certainly useful to students seeking financial aid.

Picking up a bursary information packet from the financial aid office at a university will give students a wide array of available South Africa bursaries which they may be eligible for. Normally managed by individual institutions, applying to these bursaries is normally as simple as submitting applications to the financial aid department and waiting to hear back regarding award status. Applying to these programs should always be a first step and students should do this as early as possible so that they can better assess the amount of money they still need for college if their award amounts do not cover all costs.

The next step for many students still searching for financial aid would be the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) which offers loans to those who can demonstrate monetary need. These programs often start out as loans which are required to be repaid, but in many cases can be converted into South African bursaries. The benefit of conversion should be fairly plain – if converted to a bursary, NSFAS loans do not have to be repaid. Like local bursaries offered by individual colleges, the NSFAS program can be applied to through the university a student is enrolled in.

One of the greatest differences between South Africa bursaries and those offered more commonly in the West is the prevalence of private programs. These private programs are very often highly competitive and provide an immense amount of money for students often covering not only the entirety of tuition but also covering living arrangement, meals, and travel needs. Differing from the South African bursaries offered by the national government and individual colleges, private bursaries very often focus highly on individual skill sets which are needed by the offering company. Beyond this, students entering a bursary agreement with a private company are very often required to work for them after graduation until the approximate cost of their bursary has been repaid. After that, their services may be terminated or they may find a long-term employment position with the company who paid for their schooling. This program type has a lot of really great benefits, but competitiveness around such private offerings often means that only those students who show exceptional dedication and great academic merit will find their ways into the programs.

Exxaro Bursaries South Africa