Department calls on youth to apply for bursaries

25 August 2008

As part of its efforts to create a sound and sustainable health professional’s skill base in the province, the department of Health and Social Services in Mpumalanga is calling on the youth of the province to apply for many bursaries available in the department for 2009 academic year.

The health and social services sectors are increasingly under strain due to limited pool of professionals available in the market, and the increasing competition for these available resources between public and private sector and developed and developing world. These shortages have unfortunately lead to unsustainable and unhealthy competition even amongst provinces and leads to situations where provinces offer different salary packages and other service benefits, and provinces with fewer resources, such as Mpumalanga become the greatest causality of this process of scramble for human resources.

It is informed by these realities that we, as a department decided that as part of many interventions of development, recruitment and retention of health and social service professionals that we chose to embark on an aggressive training of our own youth in the province, so that in the mid to long term, we have sustainable skill base in the province.

On an annual basis, we award bursaries to academically deserving and financially needy students in the province, with special emphasis to rural areas, orphans and child head households. To date, we have 40 students studying medicine in Cuba, we have over 600 students studying various health professions in our tertiary institutions and more than 300 students studying social and community development in various universities. We are also in this financial year training 200 unemployed youth in the province for the Auxiliary Social Work programme and we are now in the process of recruiting 347 youth in the programme as part of the Masupa-Tsela National Youth Pioneer programme.

“The awarding of these many bursaries do not only benefit individual students, his/her family and community, but is importantly part of the Government’s accelerated skill development programme and development of our youth so that they may escape many social ills confronting our society” said MEC Fish Mahlalela.

Students who have interest to study; Medicine (MBCHB), pharmacy, radiography, physiotherapist, speech and hearing therapy, psychology, nutrition, nursing and social work, in possession of a matric certificate with university entrance or currently doing grade 12, resident of Mpumalanga and in possession of an ID document are requested to apply by no later than 30 September 2008. Application forms can be sourced from any of our clinics, hospitals, social work offices and district offices.

NB: WE ADVICE STUDENTS TO SIMULTENOUSLY APPLY FOR PROVISIONAL REGISTRATION AT TERTIARY INSTUTIONS.

For any enquiry on this matter, please contact out toll-free number between, 08h00-16h15 on Monday to Friday at 0800 20 40 98.

End.

Issued by Department of Health and Social Services

Contact

Mpho Gabashane
082 802 4937