Pretoria - Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown will hand over bursaries, shoes and school uniform while hosting a career expo for schools in George in the Western Cape next week.
The 2030 National Development Plan (NDP) Career Expo, which will be held on Monday, will see the Minister hand over 10 bursaries to learners from four high schools in the George Local Municipality for the 2018 academic year.
The Minister will be accompanied by the Western Cape MEC for Education, Debbie Schäfer, where she will guide Grade 10 –12 learners on career paths that they can pursue to become future artisans and engineers.
Learners from Thembalethu, Imizamoyethu, Parkdene and George High schools will be informed how they can qualify for future bursary opportunities at the career expo.
Minister Brown has requested State-owned company, Eskom, to reserve 10 bursaries for top learners in the George region to attend tertiary institutions of their choice next year.
Minister Brown’s allocation of the bursaries is part of the Department of Public Enterprises’ Back-to-School campaign, which aims to resource poor schools and motivate academically deserving learners. This forms part of efforts by government to advocate and promote academic excellence in the country.
Help for the learners
At the expo, learners will be exposed to career opportunities in industries such as engineering, aviation and forestry, among others.
Over 20 exhibitors from government, SOEs and the private sector will showcase their bursary and learnerships schemes and how learners can access them.
Furthermore, Minister Brown will hand over 2 000 dignity packs, 100 school shoes and school uniform to 20 underprivileged leaners.
SOEs reporting to Minister Brown have also contributed through their respective Corporate Social Investment programmes. Denel will offer tutorials at the 2017 Winter School. Transnet will renovate the George High School Hostel, and Transnet will provide four container libraries to the four schools. – SAnews.gov.za
