Missed out on Medicine but still want to be a Doctor?

/6 Comments/in , /by

Getting into medicine is hard.  There is fierce competition for spaces with universities only offering 200-250 medicine places each year.  Successfully completing medicine is even harder with seven very demanding years of study ahead.  Fortunately there are plentiful other opportunities in the health sector.  These are easier to access than medicine and still offer fulfilling and well paid careers.  If you want to explore other health science options have a look here.  There are also options in health support, information here.  However, if your heart is still set on being a doctor and you are willing to work hard, here is what you can do.

Ways into Medicine Degrees

  1. Take a science degree and transfer to medicine.

Several universities offer you the opportunity to transfer to medicine from a science degree.  You must still as meet minimum entrance requirements based on your matric results.  You also must be one of the top performers in your degree.  Stellenbosch University (SU) allows transfers from a Bachelor of Science in Human Biology at Stellenbosch at the end of first year.  The University of Pretoria (UP) and the University of Cape Town (UCT) have similar offers. Read more

TVET Colleges

/66 Comments/in , , /by

TVET  Colleges (Technical and Vocational Education and Training) are public tertiary institutes offering a wide range of practical training options for people with or without matric.  Funding is available for TVET courses through the government NSFAS scheme.  Courses  are practical and relevant to the community making participants highly employable.  Read more

Building a Career if you Failed School

/33 Comments/in , , /by

When you look at the kids sitting in a Matric class, the class does not look half empty. But the numbers show that of the class that started school 12 years ago, only half are currently sitting in a Matric class. Half will have failed school and dropped out of the system before they get to the end of Grade 12.

How many of the kids that started school 12 years ago, will have a degree three years after they complete Matric? The most recent research shows that it is 9,9%. Read more

School Leaver CV Template

/4 Comments/in , /by

If you took a whole bunch of photos of yourself you would be able to see that even though they are all different, they are still all uniquely “you”.   As you study the pictures you will see yourself with different profiles – a different part of your face showing, a different tilt of your head.  You are still the same person but you look different depending on the angle. A School Leaver CV or Personal Profile is a description of you.  It isn’t the whole of who you are and everything you ever did, it is just one particular picture of you.   It must be a true picture but it can have an angle.

You want to show the reader not only your best side, but the side of you that is most useful to them.  When you send a CV, your application is often one of very many.  You need to catch your reader’s attention right at the top of the page, by selling them exactly the person they are looking for… who also happens to be a true version (or profile) of you! Read more

School Leaver Opportunities

/376 Comments/in /by

Here are a list of our favorite websites showing school leaver opportunities.  The information on these websites is always being refreshed so don’t give up if you don’t find something right away.  Remember to also check newspapers and don’t be afraid to go and visit the places you’d like to work and tell them that you’re looking.   There’s nothing like a live person with a friendly face to outshine a pile of anonymous e-mail inquiries. Read more