Free State Office of the Premier

The Office of the Premier is the coordinating office of the Free State provincial government, responsible for driving the Premier's strategic priorities across departments rather than delivering services directly itself. Its bursary programme is a provincial skills-development initiative aimed at unemployed youth aged 18 to 35 from the Free State, funding full-time undergraduate study in fields the province has identified as priorities, including healthcare, education, engineering, data science, finance, agriculture and the built environment. As a public-service funder rather than a company, the Office's motivation is explicitly about building the province's own capacity: covering registration fees, tuition, residence and meal costs, and study materials so that scarce-skills graduates are available to serve Free State communities, whether inside government or the broader provincial economy.

Bursary holders are required to work in the Free State for a period equal to the number of years they were funded once they complete their studies, and graduates from past intakes have gone on to permanent posts in the provincial government as nurses, engineers, social workers and veterinarians, as well as internships in the private sector. This work-back condition is a defining feature of the scheme and distinguishes it from corporate bursaries aimed primarily at a single employer's own workforce.