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Good practice Imported

DHET–Google AI and Digital Skills Scholarships — 10,000 Career Certificates for South African Students and Educators

South Africa · Johannesburg · See the South Africa profile · See the Johannesburg profile

Evidence: Descriptive / self-reported Top 7% 73/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

South Africa's higher-education department and Google signed a two-year deal for 10,000 AI, cybersecurity and data-analytics Career Certificate scholarships across universities, TVET and CET colleges, with a train-the-trainer 'Generative AI for Educators' track for staff.

10,000
Google Career Certificate scholarships (2-year MoU, from March 2026)
DHET–Google AI and Digital Skills Scholarships — 10,000 Career Certificates for South African Students and Educators

Details

Maturity
Pilot
Promoter
Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) & Google South Africa
Period
March 2026 – 2028 (2-year MoU)
Keywords
Education, Workforce development, Teacher training, Public-private partnership

Context

On 30 March 2026, South Africa's Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) and Google South Africa signed a two-year Memorandum of Understanding to roll out an initial 10,000 Google Career Certificate scholarships in AI Essentials, cybersecurity and data analytics. The scholarships target students at public universities and Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) and Community Education and Training (CET) colleges, with an explicit focus on rural and township communities.

Activities

Beyond direct student scholarships, the agreement funds educator capacity-building through Google's 'Generative AI for Educators' programme delivered as a train-the-trainer model, curriculum co-creation and localisation support, ChromeOS Flex device-refurbishment support for institutions with older hardware, and joint input on AI policy development with DHET.

Conclusions

As of the signing, the agreement is a funded commitment with a defined scope and timeline rather than a programme with measured graduate outcomes — no completion or employment data has yet been reported, so its learning impact should be treated as unproven until the first cohorts finish.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Medium (€50k–€500k)
Time to results
Medium (1–3 years)
Staffing & skills
Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET), Google South Africa

Conditions for success

  • a train-the-trainer model for educator capacity-building, intended to spread AI-teaching skills across institutional staff rather than one-off training
  • device-refurbishment support (ChromeOS Flex) so institutions with older hardware are not excluded
  • explicit targeting of rural and township communities across universities, TVET and CET colleges
  • joint government-industry input on AI policy alongside the training rollout

Commonly funded by

National / regional programmes

Indicative funding routes for practices of this type — always check each programme's current calls and eligibility rules.

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Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

Attachments

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