Shoprite Holdings Limited

The Shoprite Group describes itself as South Africa’s largest retailer by market capitalisation, sales, profit, employees and customers, with operations in eight African countries. The group trades as Shoprite, Checkers, Checkers Hyper and Usave, and its 2026 operational update covered the 52 weeks ended 28 June 2026.

Registered name

Shoprite Holdings Limited

Type

Private company (food retail)

Fields funded

Food science, chartered accounting, supply chain and logistics, biological and agricultural sciences, retail business management

Website

shopriteholdings.co.za

Phone

+27 21 980 4000

A bursary that comes with a job

Shoprite’s youth opportunities page makes one promise that sets its bursaries apart: every Shoprite bursary includes a work-back agreement that guarantees graduates job opportunities with the group. Bursars sign up for funding and a first job at the same time, so applicants should want a retail career before they apply.

Shoprite says the bursary covers tuition and on-campus accommodation. The group funds scarce and high-demand fields: food science, chartered accounting, supply chain and logistics, biological and agricultural sciences, and retail business management. Applicants must be registered for undergraduate or postgraduate degree study at an accredited university, and each field of study carries its own criteria.

Bursary windows

Shoprite opens its bursary windows between February and April, and sometimes again between July and September. The 2026 round closed on 31 May 2026. BursariesAfrica expects the next main round to open around March 2027, so Grade 12 learners and first-year students should prepare documents over the December holidays.

Other Shoprite youth programmes

Shoprite runs programmes for young people who are not heading to university as well. The Retail Readiness Programme prepares young people for store jobs, and the group takes part in the Youth Employment Service, a business-led initiative with government and labour that creates work experience for unemployed youth. Shoprite also reports using technology to hire employees who live within 7 kilometres of a store.

The Shoprite Foundation invests in education separately from the bursary. In 2026 the foundation opened its first robotics lab in the Western Cape, launched another robotics lab with the Development Bank of Southern Africa, and expanded digital learning with the Trevor Noah Foundation.

Students interested in retail and food careers can compare Shoprite with the companies on our Commerce Bursaries page.