For sponsors & partners

Close the gap for one learner. Or a thousand.

South Africa's school-to-opportunity pipeline leaks at the exact moment guidance matters most — the weeks around matric results, when a learner either sees their options or gives up on them. Most never meet a career counsellor. Sponsored access puts a full plan in the hands of learners who could never pay for one — and tells them who opened the door.

Talk to us about sponsoring How it works
The problem is information, not talent

The doors exist. Nobody shows learners where.

Every year, hundreds of thousands of learners finish matric without ever seeing what they already qualify for. Some know a few of their options; almost none see all of them — the university routes, the TVET articulations, the apprenticeships that pay while you train, the bursaries with their names on them. They don't lack talent or doors. They lack the conversation that points to them.

Mostmatriculants never meet a career counsellor — the decision that shapes a life gets made blind
62.4%youth unemployment (ages 15–24), much of it among matriculants who had routes they never knew existed
One seatputs a full plan and every matched bursary in a learner's hands — for less than the cost of lunch
How sponsorship works

Three steps to a cohort with plans.

01

Choose a cohort

A school, a district, a bursary shortlist, or learners in the communities where you operate. We scope it with you.

02

Learners activate on WhatsApp

Each learner chats privately on their own phone and builds a full plan — routes, institutions, funding, deadlines. Free for them, because of you.

03

You see the impact

Anonymised reporting: reach, plans built, applications submitted. Never individual marks, names or conversations.

What you get back

Real impact, with your name on it.

Sponsorship isn't a donation into the dark. It's a working programme with your brand on the door and evidence in your hands.

Your name on the door

Every sponsored plan tells the learner who made it possible. When someone walks into a career you funded the map for, they know it — and so does their family, their class and their community.

Impact you can report

Anonymised, aggregate reporting — learners reached, plans built, funding matched, applications submitted — packaged for your CSI and B-BBEE skills-development submissions.

A talent pipeline, consent first

Sponsoring bursaries, learnerships or graduate programmes? Learners you've sponsored can choose to raise their hands to you when they're ready. They opt in; we make the introduction. We never hand over a learner's information.

Reach where you operate

Point your sponsorship at the schools, districts or provinces that matter to your business — the communities your levies and CSI mandates are meant to reach.

What a sponsored seat unlocks

The full plan, free for the learner.

  • Every route their marks open — degree, diploma, apprenticeship or paid training — ranked by fit
  • All routes to their goal: direct, bridging, TVET articulation, extended, alternate
  • Bursaries matched to them, with closing dates — plus an NSFAS check
  • A dated action plan with reminders before every deadline
  • Their Vela Companion — an AI guide for fees, residence, documents and funding questions, all the way through applying
  • Motivation letter & CV coaching, with a real person reviewing their draft
Learners are never the product. Vela is POPIA-compliant: a learner's marks and personal details are used only to build their own plan — never sold, never shared with sponsors or schools in identifiable form. Sponsor reporting is aggregate and anonymous, and introductions to your programmes happen only when a learner opts in. Sponsorship qualifies for CSI and B-BBEE skills-development spend, aligned to SETA artisan-pipeline and scarce-skills priorities — we surface the employers and programmes your levies fund, across SETAs including merSETA, MQA, CHIETA, TETA and W&RSETA.

Sponsor a cohort. Change what they can see.

Tell us who you want to reach — a school, a region, a pipeline — and within a week we'll come back with a scoped proposal, per-seat pricing and a sample of the reporting you'll receive.

Talk to us about sponsoring

Or write to us directly: hello@velaguide.co.za