Isuzu Motors South Africa Graduate-in-Training Programme

Written by Thabo MokoenaSenior Education Editor

Reviewed & verified by Naledi KhumaloSenior Admissions and Bursaries EditorVerified

Isuzu Motors South Africa (IMSAf), which builds Isuzu bakkies and trucks at its plant in Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth), runs a two-year Graduate-in-Training (GIT) programme for young graduates. Isuzu calls it one of the company’s key entry points for future leaders and technical specialists. The GIT is a paid workplace programme inside the company, not a bursary: Isuzu does not pay for anyone’s degree through it, and applicants must already have graduated.

A 24-month intake that starts every second February

The IMSAf careers page gives the programme’s timetable in two lines. The programme runs for 24 months, starting in February of every second year, and recruitment for an intake happens between August and November of the year before. Because the programme runs only every second year, a graduate who misses one recruitment window may wait two years for the next.

Isuzu does not say on its careers page which February the next intake begins, and it does not publish closing dates in advance. On 27 September 2026, inside the usual August to November window, the “Graduates in Training” category on Isuzu’s graduate recruitment portal listed no open vacancies. That can mean the next intake is not in 2027, or that the advert has not yet been posted. The portal is the place to watch.

What the programme is designed to build

According to Isuzu, the GIT gives graduates from various institutions meaningful workplace experience and a foundation for a career. It is shaped around IMSAf’s own future staffing needs: it focuses on core competencies, strengthens the company’s talent pipeline, and creates openings for long-term placement within the business. In other words, Isuzu uses the programme to grow people it may later employ permanently, although the careers page does not promise a job at the end.

The best public picture of where graduates work comes from an Isuzu newsroom release of 26 February 2020. That year seven graduates joined the GIT and six students joined the in-service training programme. The group was spread across technical services, purchasing, vehicle sales, marketing, after-sales, engineering, manufacturing and maintenance. Isuzu’s training and organisational development manager said the graduates receive the training they need and are mentored by professionals in the company. The release also profiled an environmental engineer who joined IMSAf as an in-service trainee while studying analytical chemistry at Nelson Mandela University and stayed on.

Isuzu does not publish a salary, a list of qualifying degrees, an age limit or minimum marks for the GIT. Those details appear, if at all, in the advert for a specific intake. The 2020 placements suggest that engineering, science and commerce graduates have all found a place.

Other early-career routes at IMSAf

The same careers page describes two other entry points that are easy to confuse with the GIT:

• In-service training is for engineering and related students who still need practical experience (P1 and P2, six months each) to graduate. Isuzu notes that this model is being phased out and replaced by work-integrated learning (WIL).
• Youth Employment Service (YES) placements give people aged 18 to 35 twelve months of workplace experience. Isuzu says it has recruited 276 YES trainees since its first intake in 2020.

Where Isuzu posts the GIT adverts

Graduate vacancies go on a separate portal from Isuzu’s ordinary jobs. The “Find Careers” button in the graduate section of the IMSAf careers page leads to the Isuzu graduate recruitment portal, which has two categories: In Service Training and Graduates in Training. Applicants register, complete a profile and apply to a specific advert. Isuzu’s other vacancies are on its main recruitment portal.

Students who still need funding for an engineering degree can start with the mechanical engineering bursaries list. Two other automotive funders in the Eastern Cape are covered on this site: the Volkswagen Group South Africa bursary and the NMU AIDC postgraduate bursary.

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