Put your marks in once — see the programmes you'll actually get into, the funding to pay for them, and the careers they lead to. Built for every South African deciding what comes after school.
A South African 17-year-old makes the most consequential decision of their life with eight tabs open and no map.
Admission is gated behind a score across six subjects — but final NSC results only arrive in January, months after most application windows have already closed.
NSFAS, private bursaries and institutional scholarships live in disconnected portals — each with its own forms, rules and deadline. Students miss funds they easily qualify for, because nothing joins them up.
Salary bands and demand signals are published — but not surfaced where the choice happens. Degrees get picked on culture or parental pressure, not on what the economy is actually hiring.
Grade 9 or Grade 12, applying again, coming back to study, or helping someone who is — there's a version of the Desk built around you, and a page that shows exactly how deep we go.
Marks in → a real APS and every door they open.
Explore →Choose subjects that keep the most doors open.
Explore →Two futures? Keep both open and see what separates them.
Explore →Applying again? Re-aim your list around what changed.
Explore →Come back to study on routes that fit around a job.
Explore →Going further? Track your postgrad applications now — matching lands with the postgrad catalogue.
Explore →Help without guessing — the money and the choices, in plain language.
Explore →Reach right-fit students and measure outcomes. (B2B)
Explore →Fill your bursary intake with the students it was written for. (B2B)
Explore →Guiding a cohort? The counsellor view is early-access.
Explore →Six real routes into — and around — tertiary, and no one tells students which programmes belong to which. We tag every programme, plainly. All the doors, at once.
You meet the APS, subject and language requirements. Apply, get in, start in year one. The fastest route — but not always the best-fit one; the match between student and programme has to be real.
Same degree, four years instead of three, with academic support built into the curriculum — designed for capable students the APS alone undersells and who would otherwise be turned away from Direct entry.
A bridging year — or a Higher Certificate (NQF 5) that steps up into a diploma or degree. Same destination, lower entry bar. Most major universities run Foundation tracks, and most matrics never hear they exist.
Vocational diplomas and certificates that lead straight to trades and technical careers, usually in two or three years. NSFAS funds them fully, with a monthly stipend. Not a fallback — for many careers, the strongest route.
Registered private colleges and higher-education institutions offer Higher Certificates, diplomas and degrees, often with smaller classes and flexible intakes. The catch is cost: most are self- or employer-funded, and NSFAS generally does not cover them.
Learnerships, apprenticeships and QCTO trade routes — you are employed and qualifying at the same time, earning a stipend or wage while you train. For many careers it is the strongest route, not the fallback.
These badges appear next to every programme on the platform. Filter by them, compare across them, sort funding against them — and for the routes beyond the programme index, the full menu is one click away.
Open pathways atlas →15 ways forward →The index is compiled from official, public sources — institutions' own published requirements and fees, NSFAS and funder publications, and StatsSA labour-market releases. Where we can't stand behind a number, we say so instead of inventing one.
The renderer above is the front door. Behind it: a programme index, a pathway atlas, a funding match engine, a career explorer, and an institution console. They all read from the same data — so the answer in one is the answer in all of them.
Real, active programmes across public universities and TVETs — tagged with APS, fees, pathway and duration. Filter by what your marks open, where, and what it costs.
Open programmes →A long-form read on the four entry routes — direct, extended, foundation and TVET — with funding eligibility and which careers each one opens.
NSFAS plus real, active private funders from the live index — matched to your marks, means and field. No invented totals: only funding that actually exists.
Match to funding →Start with the job — published salary bands, demand and scarce-skill status — and walk the programme back to your APS.
Explore careers →Universities, TVET colleges and funders on one partner stack: reach students whose marks and means genuinely fit, and route applications with less funnel waste.
Talk to us →No sign-up. No card. The full APS calculator and your first programme shortlist takes under sixty seconds. The strategy takes ten minutes more.
Every programme, bursary and requirement is compiled from the institution's and funder's own published information — and where we can't stand behind a number, we say so instead of inventing one. If we get something wrong, tell us: we fix it and say we did. Decisions this big deserve data this honest.