Altron Bill Venter Academy

About the Altron Bill Venter Academy

The Altron Bill Venter Academy is the learning arm of Altron, a JSE-listed South African technology group. It carries the name of Bill Venter, who built the group's Altech business and chaired it for many years. The Academy works from the group's Gauteng offices, and its roots go back to a corporate training facility that Altron relaunched as a corporate university in 2014.

Altron has businesses in ICT infrastructure, financial technology and digital services. Because technology skills are scarce in South Africa, the group invests in training its own people and in growing new talent.

How the Academy supports learning

The Academy was designed around four focus areas. They are management and leadership development, sales enablement, customer service, and scarce ICT skills. It works with public and private universities so that staff can take short courses, degrees and postgraduate studies. In earlier years, the Academy reported graduating hundreds of employees from certificate and degree programmes.

Much of this training is meant for people who already work in the group. For that reason, the Academy is not an open study fund that anyone can join. Still, Altron has also used the Academy name for external opportunities. These have included an end-user computing learnership at NQF Level 3, which gave unemployed young people a first step into the technology sector.

The Altron Bill Venter Academy bursary has also been advertised in the past. Earlier calls supported South African students in fields such as electronic, industrial and computer engineering, computer science, informatics and finance. Preference went to students from disadvantaged backgrounds with strong academic records. Benefits and conditions differ by year, so none of the older details should be treated as current.

Technology careers reward a mix of technical and people skills. For that reason, corporate programmes like this one often combine engineering or coding with leadership and customer service training. Students who build both sets of skills tend to stand out when companies recruit graduates. Consider short courses, online certificates and vacation work as well, because these show employers that you are serious about the sector and ready to learn on the job.

What to know before applying

Altron does not keep a bursary window open all year. Calls appear when the group has budget and a need for specific skills. As a result, you should watch the careers and bursary pages on the official Altron website, and be wary of any old posts that still show a past closing date.

When a call opens, expect to send a completed form, a certified copy of your ID and your academic records. Interviews usually follow for shortlisted applicants. In addition, ask whether the award carries a work-back obligation, because some corporate bursaries do. Never pay a fee to apply, and use only the contact details published by Altron itself.