About Us
About The Kitso Gap Year Program
Kitso Gap year is designed to help matriculants use their gap year to improve their marks, apply for tertiary education, get a job or start a business.
Our Vision
A South Africa where no matriculant is left behind
KITSO is working to create a future where every young person that completes matric is provided with access to structured support and real opportunities regardless of their background, results or circumstances so that they can become financially independent.
Our Mission
Equipping matriculants for the next stage in their lives.
Our mission is to help matriculants study further, get a job or build a business. By helping matriculants do these things we are helping them prepare for their next stage in life during their gap year. To make sure that we achieve this goals we have built a year long gap year program that runs from February to January of the following year allowing us to ensure that matriculants participating in our program will be set up for success after their gap year.
Deep Dive
What Each Objective Looks Like In Practice
Tertiary Applications Support
"Apply on time for the right courses and bursaries."
Navigating various learning and training opportunities as well as bursary, university and college applications can be overwhelming. There are too many options and employment is not guaranteed even after you obtaining your qualifications and certificates. A little over 24 percent of young graduates is unemployed, that means for every 4 young people that chose to study further 1 is unemployed. this is why we work with our matriculants through the entire application process helping them identify the right institutions and the right courses to apply to with the goal of ensuring that they will be able to become employable and financially independent afterwards.
What's Included
Personalised institution and programme guidance
Application form assistance and review
NSFAS and bursary application support
Application deadline tracking and follow-up
Job Readiness & Employment
"Obtain guidance, certifications and skills that will help you get your first job."
Unemployment among South African youths is 47.4%, there is a lot of competition in the job market and getting a permanent job is difficult. To improve your chances of success we help you with all aspects surrounding applying for jobs and interviewing, additionally, we help our matriculants obtain their driving licenses and various certificates that we believe will help them in their search for their first job.
What's Included
Career coaching and guidance
Job Search strategies and support
CV and interview preparation
Workplace skills and certifications
Income generation and Entrepreneurship
"Become a financially independent adult with and without a job."
When finding a job is as hard as it is the only other option you have is to create your own job, unfortunately, for many reasons in most parts of the country starting a profitable business is difficult if not impossible to achieve. During the program we help matriculants come up with ideas, test them in their communities and build businesses or income generating opportunities from them. In addition to the various face to face workshops and mentoring opportunities in the program we also have an online short course on entrepreneurship and a variety of courses that teach skills that can be used to generate income.
What's Included
Ideation and opportunity identification in local communities
Basic business planning and financial literacy
Marketing and customer acquisition fundamentals
Skills for income generation
Who It's For
Built For Matriculants Ready To Use Their Gap Years To Build A Life They Want.
The Kitso Gap Year Program is ideal for matriculants who are unsure about their next step, want to improve their chances of success and gain skills before entering tertiary education, applying for jobs or starting a business.
We recognise that matriculants have different goals and we have built a program that we believe will be valuable regardless of what goals a matriculant has. This program is for you if you are a matriculant who:
does not want to waste another year on a non-productive gap year
wants to apply for tertiary education, bursaries and training opportunities
wants to gain skills that will make applying for jobs and getting jobs easier
is interested in starting a business
wants to become economically independent