In 2019, the Foundation commissioned a comprehensive end-to-end model of support and corporate social investment, which covers every stage of educational development of learners from early childhood to matric as well as throughout tertiary education, skills development for youth, entrepreneurship and employment. The defining features of this model focus on leveraging technological innovations, partnerships with government and civil society, as well as community support and they align with the Foundation's strategic intent of bridging digital divides within communities.
The ecosystem embraces a comprehensive approach to education to focus on the entire education ecosystem from Early Childhood Development Centres, Schools of Excellence and Teacher Centres ensuring end-to-end support to beneficiaries of these structures.
Vodacom Mobile Programme
Vodacom e-school
Vodacom e-school provides free access to quality relevant digital educational content, which is Curriculum and Policy Statement (CAPS) aligned. During COVID-19, it became evident that online learning was playing a key role in ensuring ongoing learning outside the classroom, with the e-School portal reaching over 1.1 million registered on the platform.
3000 Schools
Vodacom has equipped 3000 schools across South Africa with ICT support. The following equipment is provided to the schools at an average cost of R350 000.
- 30 Laptops with trolley
- Interactive whiteboard
- Data projector and printer
The Bursary Programme
The bursary programme provides bursaries to top-achieving learners from disadvantages communities to study mainly in the ICT, sciences, technology, management sciences and engineering sectors.
The purpose of the programme is to improve capacity in these key scarce areas where the graduated bursars stand a chance to feed into the talent pipeline of various businesses through direct hire opportunities, internships or graduate programmes.
Since inception in 1999, Vodacom has awarded 1200 bursaries to deserving students.