Why We Exist
People ask why a small organisation in Midrand decided to put one hundred young South Africans through university and college. The answer is not a feeling. It is a set of numbers that are published every year, by our own government, and that most of us never look at.
Here they are. Every figure on this page names its source, and every source is linked at the bottom so you can check us.
How many young South Africans are locked out of work?
Does studying after school actually change that?
This is the question that decided what We Aspire would fund. Stats SA publishes the unemployment rate broken down by the highest qualification a person holds. The gap between the lines is the entire case for this organisation.
Read those two cards next to each other. Matric alone leaves a young person almost exactly where they started. The qualification that comes after it is what changes the odds — and it is the one that costs money nobody has.
So why don't more of them study?
Stats SA asks people who are not attending any educational institution why they stopped. Nationally, money is the second most common answer. In Gauteng — the province we work in — it is the first, by a wide margin.
Read that again. In our province, the single most common reason a young person is not studying is not ability, distance or interest. It is that the money ran out. That is a problem money can fix — which is the entire reason this organisation exists.
Who falls through the funding gap?
There is a gap that catches exactly the students who did everything right. Earn too little and the state funds you. Earn enough and you can pay. In between sits a band of families who qualify for neither.
Not poor enough for the state, not comfortable enough to pay. A place is offered, accepted, and then quietly given up in January. Our first scholar was one of these students.
And the ones already inside the system?
Getting in is one problem. Staying in, and being allowed to leave with proof of what you did, is another. In May 2026 Parliament's Portfolio Committee on Higher Education was briefed on how large this has become.
This is the trap the committee itself named. Without the certificate you cannot apply for the job. Without the job you cannot pay the debt. Without paying the debt you cannot have the certificate. It can be broken for a few thousand rand, and almost nobody is doing it.
How many drop out?
Honestly? We do not know, and neither does anyone quoting a figure at you. Here is why we leave this one blank.
You will see it reported that "up to 60% of first-year students quit after their first term", or that half of all first-years drop out. It is repeated across South African news sites and it would be a very useful number for us to put in a fundraising appeal.
We traced it. The 60% figure comes from research published by Fundi, a student finance company, not from the Department of Higher Education and Training or the Council on Higher Education. Other versions rest on university studies from 2004 and 2010. There is no current official national dropout statistic that we could find and verify.
Dropping out for financial reasons is real, and the debt figures above show exactly how it happens. But we are asking you for your money, so we will not hand you a statistic we cannot stand behind. Sources [7]
That is why we started We Aspire.
Not because the problem is mysterious. Because it isn't. Matric on its own leaves a young South African almost exactly where they started. The qualification that would change that is sitting behind a registration fee, a laptop, a taxi fare and a balance of a few thousand rand — amounts that are decisive for one family and unremarkable for another.
We Aspire NPC was registered in February 2026 to close that gap for one student at a time, completely, rather than partly for many. Today one scholar has every cost of her university education covered — tuition, textbooks, a laptop and a monthly stipend. She is exactly the student the numbers above describe, and she is no longer one of them.
Our commitment is one hundred of them, fully funded, by 2030. Ninety-nine places are still open. One year of university costs R12 000 — which is fifty people giving R20 a month.
Sources
Every figure on this page, with a link to where it came from. If you find one that is wrong, please tell us and we will correct it.
- Statistics South Africa — Quarterly Labour Force Survey, Q1 2026. Youth unemployment (15–34) of 45,8%, up 2,0 percentage points on the previous quarter, covering 4,7 million people; 60,9% among 15–24s; 3,9 million of 10,3 million 15–24s not in employment, education or training. statssa.gov.za
- Statistics South Africa — Quarterly Labour Force Survey, Q1 2026, unemployment by education level. 37,6% for those without matric, 35,7% with matric, 22,2% with a diploma or certificate and 12,2% with a degree or higher. statssa.gov.za (PDF)
- Statistics South Africa — General Household Survey 2024, reasons for non-attendance. 29,5% of persons aged 5–24 not attending an educational institution nationally, and 42% in Gauteng, cited no money for fees. statssa.gov.za
- National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS). Bursary funding threshold of R350 000 household income; the Missing Middle Loan Scheme covers households from R350 001 to R600 000. nsfas.org.za
- NSFAS Missing Middle Loan Scheme allocation. Approximately 31 884 loans funded against an estimated 68 446 students in the missing-middle category, or about 47%. careersportal.co.za
- Parliament of South Africa — Portfolio Committee on Higher Education, briefing of 28 May 2026 by the Department of Higher Education and Training, Universities South Africa and the South African Public Colleges Organisation. Total post-school student debt of R59 billion (R29 billion NSFAS-funded, R26 billion self-funded, R12 billion irrecoverable); 188 209 university certificates and 20 950 TVET college certificates withheld; institutions commonly requiring 50% of arrears before re-registration. parliament.gov.za
- The dropout figure we do not use. The widely repeated claim that up to 60% of first-year students drop out traces to research published by Fundi, a private student finance company, alongside North-West University studies from 2004 and 2010. We could find no current official national dropout rate from the Department of Higher Education and Training or the Council on Higher Education, so we quote none. bizcommunity.com
Page last reviewed 3 October 2026. Where a survey is superseded we update the figure and the date rather than leaving an old number standing.