Often viewed and known to be a resourceful transition from an academic career to the professional space, learnerships have various ways in which they can serve students who manage to attain them.
But then, what does attaining a learnership mean for students funded by the National Student Financial Scheme (NSFAS) in terms of their funding eligibility?
In response to this query, NSFAS stated that if a student meets the academic requirements and their wages are below the yearly household income limit specified by their funding eligibility requirement, this will not affect their eligibility for student funding assistance.
As long as you meet the academic criteria, and as long as your salary does not exceed the annual household threshold, this does not affect your NSFAS funding.
Furthermore, according to his most recent speech, tabled on Friday 24 July 2022 on the present state of NSFAS and changes to funding operations, Higher Education Minister, Blade Nzimande said that preparations applications for 2023 are already underway.
He continued by stating that he has asked the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) Board to prepare for the funding application window to open for the 2023 academic year.
This, according to the Minister, would make it a bit of an earlier than usual period to open applications as opposed to the usual August and September of the previous academic years.
To date, NSFAS has provided funding for 691 432 students attending universities in 2022, consisting of 227 072 male and 462 983 female students.
The bursary scheme projected a 10% increase in student enrollment across all TVET academic cycles, or around 395 000 students, for 2022 TVET College funding. As a result, NSFAS has provided 380 000 TVET College students with provisional funding.
