Broad-based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) Bursaries are awarded with the objective of meeting the skills development goals of an organization as well as maintaining their B-BBEE status. Large organizations (turnover exceeds R50 million per annum) in South Africa are required by law to spend at least 2,5% of their annual leviable revenue on bursaries for Black students at basic, higher and tertiary education institutions. This is based on amendments to the B-BBEE Codes of Good Practice, put into effect on the 1 December 2019. By doing so, organizations will earn B-BBEE scorecard points under the Skills Development category. In total 6% of leviable revenue must be spent within the Skills Development Element with 2.5% going to bursaries and 3,5% going to learnerships, accredited short courses and informal training. The purpose of these Skills Development laws is to provide the capital and channels to meet the country’s national goals of providing access to quality education and decent employment to as many young South Africans as possible.
B-BBEE Bursaries are for degrees, diplomas, and certificates must be with training institutions registered with the Department of Basic Education or the Department of Higher Education. Depending on the funding organization, they may offer a talent development pipeline to bursary recipients to gain practical work training upon graduation. These could be in the form of internship, learnership or graduate programs. Costs covered by these types of bursaries may include: partial or full payment of school, college and university fees; a laptop; text books; food and/or accommodation; a stipend for recipients during the course of their program.
Organizations funding the bursary may have specific conditions attached to their offer such as:
- Annual renewal of the bursary based on the availability of funds,
- Proof of registration with certain programs within a specific discipline or field.
You will need to register and complete a bursary application profile on our Application Platform to furnish the company with the required information and provide supporting documents such as: your ID, full academic record or employment history, provisional/conditional acceptance letter or proof of registration and statement of account for the accredited higher or tertiary education institution and field of study you are enrolled for.
Note: Please consider the following about B-BBEE Bursaries we administer at Career Wise:
- They are only available to South African citizens and permanent residents, unless stated otherwise.
- They are intended for study programmes at South African public (visit the Universities South Africa (USAf) website https://www.usaf.ac.za/ to see full list 26 public of institutions).
- They are only provided for undergraduate studies.