Try the job before you pick it.
Most people choose a career by guessing. Sgela lets you try one first — five real decisions from inside the job, in about three minutes.
No sign-up to try it. Free for learners, always.
Deadline
drill
Client
brief
Pick the
right brief
The client
says
"Make it pop. And can you make the logo bigger?"
Make the logo bigger and add a drop shadow.
Ask what "pop" means to them — then show two options.
Explain why the current size is correct.
Access went up. Direction didn't.
More South Africans are getting into tertiary education than ever before. That hasn't stopped people spending three years on something that was never right for them.
Choosing a career from a brochure and a guess
Finding out the entry requirements the week they close
Dropping a subject in Grade 9 that closes a degree in Grade 12
Two years into a qualification before the doubt arrives
Nobody at home who has been through the application before
A bursary missed because one document wasn't ready
More than half of South African workers are in jobs their qualification doesn't match. The problem isn't getting in anymore. It's knowing what you're walking into.
Enrolment figures: Stats SA and DHET. Skills-mismatch figure: Inside Education, 2023.
Know the whole application before it opens.
- Entry requirements and APS, as a game instead of a PDF
- Which subjects each degree actually needs
- What to submit, and the closing date for each one
- NSFAS and bursary steps in the order you need them
You arrive at application season already knowing what to do, instead of finding out the week before it closes.
One
deadline
Six
courses
Graphic design · two tracks
Deadlines
Getting in
Doing the
work
The part nobody else does.
Short scenarios from inside the job itself. Not a questionnaire about what you like — the actual decisions, with consequences.
A spaza shop owner wants a logo and says "make it pop." What do you ask her first?
Four people are waiting at the clinic and you can see one. Who?
Every other career platform matches you to a job and tells you about it. None of them let you try it.
Three streams, built properly, before eighty built thinly.
Sgela isn't open yet. Three streams are live to try right now, each written with people who do the work. We'd rather you judge those than a promise.
Learner quotes and partner schools will appear here once there are real ones.
Grades 9 to 12.
Subject choice
The biggest decision you'll make at school, and the hardest to undo. Drop the wrong subject and whole degrees close before you knew they existed. Sgela shows you what each subject keeps open — while you can still change it.
Time to test it
The best two years to find out a path isn't for you. Try a stream, do the work, and change your mind while changing it is still free.
Both tracks at once
You need to know what to submit and when — and whether the thing you're applying for is actually what you think it is. The application game and the practice track run together.
Light on data
Built to work on a cheap handset and a slow connection, and not to eat your data. Short sessions, nothing heavy to download.
Made for how applying actually works.
What each degree needs, at each institution that offers it.
Your points, what they open, and the caveat that every institution counts differently.
What to submit, certified or not, and by when.
Closing dates you meet, instead of discover.
The funding steps in the order you actually need them.
Scenarios from inside the job, so the choice is tested and not guessed.
Three streams are live.
No sign-up. Five real decisions each — you'll know more in three minutes than a brochure could tell you.
Graphic
design
Making things people can read, understand and trust — usually for someone who can't quite say what they want.
Nursing
Looking after people who are frightened, in pain, or just very tired of waiting — twelve hours at a time.
Software
dev
Mostly working out why something already does what it does — and occasionally writing something new.
More streams are coming. These three are first because they're three genuinely different kinds of work.
You get to choose this.
Maybe it's your parents' idea. Maybe it's what everyone else is doing. Maybe it just pays well. None of that is the same as it being right for you.
So we stopped trying to tell learners what to pick, and built something that lets them find out instead. Deciding a path isn't for you is just as useful as deciding it is — and a lot cheaper in Grade 10 than in second year.
Sgela is built by Morena Mallane and Lihlomile Jack. It's free for learners and always will be — universities, colleges and bursary sponsors pay to reach the learners they're actually looking for.
Ready to find out?
Three minutes, no sign-up, and you'll know something about yourself that a brochure can't tell you.