Sanral promotes talent pool

Issued by SANRAL
Johannesburg, Aug 18, 2017

A picture circulating on social media about Sanral and its allocation of scholarships to the country's different race groups has raised concern among various stakeholders. However, the roads agency says the picture is misleading.

Sanral provides scholarships to high school learners across the country. It does this to ensure there is a pipeline of talent for the engineering and construction professions in general and is not aimed just at the road agency's needs, says Vusi Mona, its head of communications.

Learners who are eligible are those in Grades 10, 11 and 12 who show an aptitude for maths, physical science and English.

In 2016/17, the South African National Roads Agency (Sanral) invested R4.3 million in this programme and provided scholarships to a total of 194 learners.

Fifty-five were grade 12 learners and 80% of these qualified at the end of 2016 for degree-level studies at tertiary institutions. More than six out of 10 scholarship recipients were African and a similar proportion comprised girls and young women.

The programme started in 2009 with 49 learners and has thus far benefited 720 learners. Sanral's investment over the years has amounted to about R14 million.

Over the past few months, the roads agency has been hosting learners at events who have been awarded scholarships. These events, held on a Saturday in all of Sanral's regions, were aimed at introducing learners to Sanral and the opportunities offered in its bursaries programme.

The scholarship programme pays for school fees, school uniform, books and stationery costs.

Scholarship programme in numbers:

* African learners were awarded 63% of the scholarships. * White learners received 27% of the scholarships; * Indian and coloured learners both received 5% of scholarships. * In total, the recipients were 59% male and 41% female.

In addition, Sanral runs an internship programme aimed at government initiatives that address youth unemployment. The programme provides work-integrated learning to tertiary institution students and graduates.

Sanral helps place interns at contractors and consultants working on Sanral projects. The majority of these interns study towards a national diploma in civil engineering.

Sanral facilitated the placement of 304 interns in 2016/17 - a number that translates to 87% of the agency's staff complement with the overwhelming majority - 293 of 304 - black African and four out of 10 being young women.