Learners attending the Adventures Into Citizenship (AIC) Learner Engagement 2026 left the Cape Town Civic Centre inspired this afternoon, after discovering the many opportunities available within the City of Cape Town; from bursaries and internships to learnerships, career pathways and youth leadership programmes. The City’s bursary applications are set to open in August/September 2026. Learners from across the metro are encouraged to start preparing now and to explore careers in fields where the City urgently needs skilled professionals.
‘Making progress possible together means every one of you has a role to play in making your local government work. The City exists to serve its residents, and we want young people to become active participants by getting involved in public participation and understanding how local government functions. We are also committed to investing in talent through our bursaries, internships and career opportunities because today’s learners are tomorrow’s engineers, IT specialists, planners, leaders and public servants who will help build a City of Hope and continue making a difference in our communities,’ said Alderman Theresa Uys, the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Corporate Services.
Representatives from the City’s Human Resources: Training and Development Department encouraged learners to prepare for the upcoming bursary application period.
‘Bursary applications open from around August and September this year and they are available to qualifying South African youth residing in Cape Town. If one is still undecided on what they would like to study, I would encourage learners to consider scarce skills fields on the City’s list,’ said Patrick Martinus from the City’s Training and Development Department.
The list of scarce skills includes the following careers: Engineering, accounting, auditing, economics, data science, information technology, environmental management, legal studies, psychology, project management, supply chain management, transport, water management, GIS, urban planning, architecture and library sciences.
Learners also heard from officials representing the City’s Contact Centre, Economic Development and Investment Department and the Junior City Council Ambassadors Programme, who showcased the many career and leadership opportunities available within local government.
The learners were also given the opportunity to ask questions that ranged from high unemployment figures, how to become a councillor as well as how City learnerships and training programmes work.
‘We would like to extend our sincere gratitude to Alderman Theresa Uys for this wonderful visit. This experience has been very insightful and has made us question our own ‘why?’s. Why are we sitting here? Why do we want to learn more about the City and how it works? The answers were invaluable and will go a long way in informing our future career decisions, knowing full well that the City of Cape Town is available and is here to support us.’ said Jude Theys, a Grade 11 learner from Bergvliet High School.
The Rotary-led AIC programme helps learners develop a deeper understanding of democracy, civic leadership and their role as active citizens through visits to key institutions across Cape Town. The Civic Centre engagement provided learners from 34 Western Cape schools, with firsthand insight into how local government works and the opportunities available within it.
