Discovery Learnerships and Graduate Internships

Written by Thabo MokoenaSenior Education Editor

Reviewed & verified by Naledi KhumaloSenior Admissions and Bursaries EditorVerified

Discovery Limited, the financial services group whose businesses include Discovery Health and Discovery Life, runs two entry-level programmes for young South Africans who are not yet in formal work. The learnership is for school-leavers with a Matric, and the internship is for unemployed graduates with a diploma or degree. Both last 12 months, both are advertised as individual vacancies on the Discovery careers site, and both are filled through the same four-stage hiring process. Discovery does not run one annual intake with a single closing date; each business unit posts its own learnership or internship when it has places.

The Discovery learnership for Matriculants

Discovery describes its learnership as a structured, 12-month fixed-term contract combined with a training programme. The learner works in a Discovery business area while studying towards a nationally recognised qualification in insurance or financial services. The general criteria on Discovery’s talent page are short: South African citizenship, a Matric certificate (or current Grade 12 enrolment with a recent school report), an age of 18 to 30, and Discovery’s employment equity targets.

The individual adverts are stricter than that summary. The learnerships posted in September 2026 all set these school results as a minimum:

• Mathematics at Level 4 (50%), or Mathematical Literacy at Level 5 (60%)
• English at Level 4 (50%) and a second language at Level 4 (50%)
• Basic computer skills, mainly Microsoft Excel and Outlook

Applicants must not be studying after Matric, must not be in formal employment, and must never have completed another learnership. An unfinished tertiary qualification counts in the applicant’s favour. The Wealth Management adverts accept only South Africans by birth.

Learnerships advertised in September 2026

The two insurance learnerships place learners in the Discovery Health call centre, where the work covers medical aid client queries, claims, new business and health benefits administration. The Wealth Management learners work on life benefits, retirement funds, funeral policies, claims, pre-sale underwriting and new business. Note the lower age ceiling of 25 on the Discovery Health posts: a 27-year-old can apply for Wealth Management but not for the Long Term Insurance learnership.

The graduate internship and the INSETA list

Discovery’s internships are 12-month placements for unemployed graduates. Interns are hosted in a business area that matches their qualification and receive mentoring and skills coaching. To qualify, a graduate must be a South African citizen with a diploma or degree that appears on the Insurance Sector Education and Training Authority’s (INSETA) scarce and critical skills list, because the internships are aligned to INSETA requirements. Employment equity again applies.

One internship was live on 27 September 2026: a Financial Learning and Development intern at the Discovery Institute of Training in Sandton. The intern helps research and write financial education material on budgeting, debt, insurance, investing and retirement, checks it for accuracy, and supports evaluation of the programmes. The advert asks for a completed three-year diploma or degree in financial planning, finance, economics, investment management or a commerce degree with a relevant major. No work experience is needed, but applicants must live in Gauteng, commute to Sandton, and must not have completed an earlier internship or graduate programme.

Discovery also lists separate graduate routes on the same talent page: a Graduate Journey for fast-track hires, the Adrian Gore Fellowship Award for top Actuarial Science Honours students, and GradHack, a yearly contest for third- and fourth-year IT students. These are not internships and have their own adverts.

Screen, engage, assess, select

Every application starts with a candidate profile on the careers site: create an account, fill in the profile fields and upload a current CV, then apply to the specific learnership or internship advert. Job alerts on the profile notify candidates when new posts appear. Recruiters screen CVs against the criteria, contact shortlisted applicants, and invite them to telephonic, virtual or in-person interviews. Discovery also runs technical and psychometric assessments on a single online platform, which opens with an instructional video and ends with an e-feedback video explaining the results.

Applicants with a disability are asked to state the accommodation they need during the application so the assessment can be adjusted. Discovery warns that it receives high volumes of applications and that an applicant who hears nothing has most likely been unsuccessful. Technical problems with the site go to recruitment_queries@discovery.co.za (with an underscore), with a screenshot of the error.

Students who want to study further in insurance can compare the INSETA bursary, which funds many of the same scarce-skills fields. Other banking-sector learnerships for Matriculants include the BankSETA Kuyasa Learnership, and graduates with commerce degrees can look through the commerce bursaries list for postgraduate study funding.

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