BBD, an international custom software company with 40 years of history and hubs in seven cities, runs its bursary as the Bursary & Beyond Programme. BBD pairs financial support with hands-on software work: a build week, holiday work on real product ideas, mentors, and a route into BBD’s Grad Programme once you finish your degree. BBD takes applications through a listing on its own careers site. The listing names no deadline, and its online form still accepted applications on 1 October 2026.
Degrees and levels BBD supports
BBD’s bursary listing asks for students enrolled, or about to enrol, in a BSc, BEng, BCom or BIS degree at a recognised South African university, majoring in one of these:
- Computer Science
- Computer and Software Engineering
- Information Technology
- Game Design
- Informatics
BBD funds bachelor’s, honours, master’s and doctoral students in these fields. BBD’s separate programme page also mentions mechanical and electrical engineering; if you study one of those, confirm with BBD that your degree fits before you apply.
BBD’s 70% and 65% averages
- South African citizenship
- An overall average of at least 70% in matric, or at least 65% at university
- A real interest in building software, ideally with projects you can show
That last point carries weight at BBD. The application asks for a link to your personal coding projects on GitHub or a similar site, so a few working projects can set you apart from applicants with marks alone.
Vac week, six weeks of vac work and the Grad Programme
BBD builds most of the programme around time spent inside the company:
- Vac week: an immersive build week where bursars meet each other, experience BBD’s culture and work in small groups on tech projects.
- Vacation work: six weeks over December and January in an incubator-style team that designs, builds and delivers a working product based on early ideas BBD is exploring. This gives you the workplace experience many universities require. BBD bursars get a place automatically; BBD opens only a few public slots each year.
- Mentorship and tech exposure: dedicated mentors and access to BBD’s research and development team (ATC), with work across AI, cloud, containers, front-end and full-stack development.
- Grad Programme: after graduation, BBD bursars can join BBD’s graduate intake and work on real project teams.
BBD describes the money side only as financial support to complete your studies. It does not publish a list of covered costs, an amount or a work-back period, so ask BBD about these before you accept an offer.
Applying on BBD’s careers site
Open the Bursary Programme listing on BBD’s website and use its Apply now button. Have these ready to upload:
- An up-to-date CV
- A copy of your ID
- Your matric certificate
- Your university acceptance letter
- Your latest academic transcript
- A link to your coding projects, if you have any
By applying, you agree that BBD may run credit and criminal checks and verify your qualifications. The BBD Bursar Programme page describes the programme in more detail. Because BBD names no deadline, apply as early as you can.
Other software-focused funders include the Amazon Recruitment Bursary and the Vodacom external bursary; our IT bursaries hub has the full list.