WomEng Southern Africa Fellowship for Women Engineers

Written by Keagan HendricksStaff Writer (Unisa Alumnus)

Reviewed & verified by Naledi KhumaloSenior Admissions and Bursaries EditorVerified

WomEng is a Johannesburg social enterprise that works to bring more girls and women into engineering and technology; it notes that women make up about 11% of the engineering workforce. Its sister organisation WomHub runs the training side. None of their programmes pays tuition like a bursary. What they offer instead is free, structured development: a fellowship for women about to graduate in engineering, a green-economy course for female engineering students, and a funded 12-month tech scholarship for young women who are out of work and out of study. This page covers what each of the three involved in its most recent round, since WomEng has not published a new intake for any of them.

The Southern Africa Fellowship with De Beers Group

The WomEng Southern Africa Fellowship, powered by De Beers Group, is a hybrid programme that ran from March 2025. Fellows joined WhatsApp discussion groups and live virtual master classes across four modules, each ending in an assignment with feedback:

1. Leadership, built around telling your own story
2. Innovation and skills for the future world of work
3. Employability and thriving in the workplace
4. An introduction to renewable energy

Well-being, meaning learning to recharge and manage stress, runs through all four. Fellows get WomEng’s own learning resources, mentorship, a peer network, and for engaged fellows a networking event with De Beers Group leaders and WomHub’s founder community.

Who could apply in 2025

• Students who identify as women, in engineering, technology or the built environment.
• Full-time study at a university or university of technology in South Africa, Botswana or Namibia. Citizens of other countries studying there were eligible too.
• Second-last or final year of an undergraduate degree, or full-time postgraduate study, so that the fellow enters the workplace within about two years.
• Time for 7 to 9 hours a month; WomEng planned the schedule around exams and holidays.
• No previous WomEng fellows.

WomEng did not publish the 2025 closing date on the fellowship page, and it has not announced a 2026 or 2027 cohort. Questions go to fellowshipsa@womeng.org.

Training for Green, six months on the energy transition

WomHub and IYBA-Seed ran Training for Green (T4G) from March to August 2026 for female engineering students aged 18 to 35 at universities and universities of technology anywhere in South Africa. It combined six virtual modules on sustainability and green hydrogen, just transitions, the social and economic effects of clean energy projects, innovation and problem-solving, and future trends such as energy storage, with one in-person Industry Connect session in Johannesburg or Cape Town where students met employers and recruitment panels. Applications closed on 20 March 2026. T4G is part of the WE4D programme commissioned by Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development and co-funded by the European Union and Norway.

WomHub Digital Skills scholarship for young women not in work or study

The WomHub Digital Skills Programme Scholarship is different: it is for school-leavers, not engineering students. Over 12 months, scholars work toward the Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) certification and build basic skills in networking, artificial intelligence and data science, on a track aligned with internships, learnerships and entry-level tech jobs. WomHub delivers the Gauteng intake with the Globeleq Educational Trust, and a separate intake in Postmasburg in the Northern Cape was run with Kumba Iron Ore. The criteria were:

• women aged 18 to 23, based in Gauteng or Postmasburg;
• Matric with Pure Mathematics at 70% or higher (Mathematical Literacy does not meet this);
• currently not in education, employment or training;
• basic computer literacy and the ability to commit to the full 12 months.

WomHub describes places as limited. Both online application forms, for Gauteng and for Postmasburg, showed “no longer accepting responses” when we checked, and no dates were given for a new intake.

Where to watch for the next WomEng round

WomEng posts every programme on its opportunities page, which also lists its high-school activities such as the GirlEng Technovation Camp. General enquiries go to info@womeng.org. Because these programmes build skills rather than paying fees, female engineering students will still need tuition funding; our engineering bursaries hub lists company and government sponsors, and the BHW Women in STEM Scholarship is one award reserved for women.

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