A business guide to avoiding the December bursary trap

Mariëtte van Wyk, Technical Specialist, The BEE Chamber

But what seems simple in theory often turns into one of the most difficult spend categories to finalise at the end of the calendar year. Universities close, students disappear, invoices go missing, and evidence doesn’t arrive in time for verification. What should have been a quick, impactful investment ends up creating stress, wasted effort, and in many cases, no measurable result at all.

Bad timing

The biggest issue is timing. Most universities close their admin and finance offices in the first week or two in December and only reopen midway through January.

Registration usually starts in February, with classes beginning a few weeks later. That means there’s a long stretch where the information companies need such as updated fee statements, proof of registration, or confirmation of outstanding balances, simply isn’t available.

With many universities, students who still owe money from the previous year can’t register until their debt is cleared. This causes a tremendous amount of anxiety and, more often than not, students drop out.

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Even when a company makes the payment in December, it may only reflect weeks later when systems are back online when payments received in December are reconciled to student accounts. Finance and transformation teams then scramble to collect evidence, but without proper documentation, they can’t prove the spend belongs in the correct financial year.

Verification depends on more than just proof of payment. It requires a full set of documents that confirm the identity of the student, that they’re enrolled in a recognised course, that the payment was made in time, and that they qualify as a beneficiary under the B-BBEE Codes.

When bursaries are processed late, that chain often breaks. Invoices arrive late, registration letters are not timeously available, and sometimes universities can’t issue confirmations until mid-February. What should have been valid spend, ends up being unverified, money out, but no points earned.

Lost opportunities

There’s another cost too: the loss of good students. By the time companies start looking for candidates between November and December, most of the top achievers have already been signed by other organisations. Students living with disabilities are often prioritised early in the academic year, so those opportunities disappear quickly as well.

The later a company starts, the smaller the pool of suitable students becomes. In the end, many bursaries go to whoever is still available, not necessarily to those who best fit the company’s sector or future talent needs and so securing a ROI.

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Disconnect

The late scramble also shows how disconnected internal teams can be. HR or transformation teams are told to find students, the finance department needs to release payments, and the compliance people need to gather evidence.

Without university contacts or a database of eligible candidates, the process turns into chaos. Weeks are lost trying to find bursars, track invoices and confirm registrations. By the time everything comes together, it’s often too late.

Start early

The smarter approach is to plan bursary spend early in the financial year. Companies that forecast their targets have access to a larger and sometimes more appropriate candidate pool, obtain documentation in time, and more predictable score outcomes.

Early planning also gives time to align bursaries with business needs, focusing on qualifications that actually build future talent pipelines.

Last-minute bursaries might seem like an easy way to meet skills development spend, but they rarely deliver what companies hope for. Bursaries are powerful tools when used properly, when they’re planned early, managed carefully and linked to long-term transformation goals.

When bursaries are last minute and rushed, the student and the scorecard will more than likely lose out.