SAYEP
The company proudly supports the South African Youth into Engineering Programme as part of our socio-economic contribution to the industry.
The lack of successful engineering graduates coupled with the lack of opportunities and funding for talented youth from rural areas, had been a concern to the engineering sector for many years. With this in mind, the 100×100 project, a predecessor to SAYEP was launched in the SAICE centenary year to identify 100 rural learners with exceptional maths skills to read for civil engineering degrees.
Scouting for talent was carried out by Dr Dudu Mkhize with the support of Jones and Wagener. Dudu, who holds a PhD in maths teaching understands well what learners need to succeed – the aptitude, support and funding. Such was the success of the early years of the programme that is has been extended to all disciplines of engineering and the number of students entering engineering tertiary studies from rural areas continues to grow. Since inception of the project in 2004, SAYEP have assisted many rural students to complete their engineering studies which otherwise would not have been possible.
Funding to support these students presents an annual challenge and SAICE-PDP is proud to support this initiative both financially, as well as by lobbying industry and the public sector for further support. SAICE-PDP has introduced many companies to SAYEP and they too now contribute towards funding and other types of support.
SAYEP is a Non-Profit Organisation (NPO) and registered as a Public Benefit Organisation in terms of section 18A(1)(a) of the Income Tax Act. As such, donations to SAYEP are tax deductible in the hands of the donors. Companies looking for opportunities to increase their B-BBEE rating and wishing to support transformation of the next generation of engineering professionals, should contact SAYEP to also become supporters.
The SAYEP bursary scheme operates differently from mainstream bursaries schemes as it offers a holistic support strategy, which includes:
- Academic support where required
- Tertiary coping skills training
- Mentoring (here industry is asked to get involved and adopt a student)
- Monitoring and reporting
- Financial support
For more details:
Contact: Dr Dudu Mkhize
Email: newera@jaws.co.za
