October 2020
The Globeleq Scholarship Fund (GSF), has expanded its focus for the upcoming 2021 academic year, which students living within a 50km radius of Soutpan Solar Power, can apply for.
The programme, which launched six years ago, to help develop young engineering students for the nascent renewable energy industry and actively support the transformation of the industry, also includes rural communities, namely Vivo, in the Blouberg Local Municipality, Limpopo.
“The GSF is accountable for a sizeable percentage of renewable energy funded-scholarships, supporting 100% black youth and mostly women beneficiaries, setting an ambitious target not only for the renewable energy industry but for other sectors who are striving to support the transformation agenda of this country,” said Hlengiwe Radebe, Economic Development Director for Globeleq.
The GSF Engineering fund is designed to support the renewable energy sector and ensure a pipeline of qualified talent. It is offered nationally through institutions offering mechatronic or electrical engineering and is specifically aimed at students studying mechatronic or electrical engineering.
The GSF Communities fund, supports localised development, as it is offered to students residing within a 50km radius in which Globeleq’s renewable energy power plants operate, including their Soutpan Solar Power plant.
“Our national footprint gives our economic development programmes reach across vast areas of the country, coupled with an ability to target specific rural beneficiary communities from the Western Cape, Eastern Cape and Northern Cape, all the way to the country’s northern Limpopo Province. This means that our scholarships can be truly localised and can support the development of scarce skills to bring about real development and socio-economic interventions,” added Radebe, speaking about the GSF Communities programme that is open to students who reside within a 50km radius of either Jeffreys Bay Wind Farm, De Aar Solar Power, Droogfontein Solar Power, Klipheuwel Wind Farm, Aries Solar Power, Konkoonsies Solar Power, Boshof Solar Power or Soutpan Solar Power.
Since 2016, the GSF recipients have been 100% black youth and over 55% female for the last three years. The programme utilises a less conventional and holistic approach to funding, by typically not only focusing on academic achievement, but rather on financial need, location of the students and gender to demonstrate its commitment to increase the cache of women engineers in the country and to the sector.
The GSF has adjusted over the years, to consistently provide young people with exposure to the renewable energy industry, as well as offering opportunities through an internship programme for beneficiaries to gain the necessary work experience. Specifically, the opportunity for national diploma students to complete their required in-service training and thereby fill the technical skills gap within the renewable energy industry.
