CAPE TOWN – South African citizens wanting to study towards a qualification in the transport, engineering or built environment fields, have until 15 September 2016 to apply for a Masakh’iSizwe bursary.
The Masakh’iSizwe Bursary Programme is a component of the Western Cape Department of Transport and Public Works. It awards study bursaries to qualifying students with a focus on scarce and critical skills.
The scheme works on a “work back” basis. “In other words, for every year that a student has received a bursary, he or she is expected to work for the Department for a year,” said the department’s spokesperson Byron la Hoe.
Over the past five years, Masakh’iSizwe has awarded 361 new bursaries.
In a statement, the department said Nerine Joubert from Paarl was recently voted as the best first-year student by the Department of Architectural Technology at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology.
“Masakh’iSizwe has helped me by offering me a bursary to study full-time. Without that push I would not have been where I am today,” she said.
During the semester, the Masakh’iSizwe Bursary Programme covers tuition fees, all prescribed books and materials, accommodation and meals, transport costs and support programmes. Bursaries are renewed each year for the duration of the course, subject to acceptable academic performance and the fulfilment of all other bursary terms and conditions.
Preference will be given to financially disadvantaged youth, women, applicants with disabilities, and applicants from the rural areas of the Western Cape. The Department will continue to support many bursars in the transport, engineering and built environments to obtain their qualifications as technicians, technologists or professional graduates in various disciplines.
“Through the Masakh’iSizwe programme, the Department and its partners look forward to the contribution that current and future graduates will make to the built environment, and ultimately to the economy of the Western Cape and South Africa as a whole,” said la Hoe.
The programme remained committed to providing study opportunities and on-the-job working experience for students and graduates, and supporting economic growth and infrastructure development.
Bursary application forms are available at www.westerncape.gov.za/service/masakhisizwe-bursary-programme
– African News Agency
