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Top graduate employers announced as voted for by tertiary students in the largest survey of its kind

The Momentum Metropolitan Students’ Choice Awards is a leading platform that recognises outstanding top graduate employers in South Africa. These awards recognise employers that current tertiary students want to work for, as voted for by the students themselves. In 2023, the awards recorded 5 539 submissions from students all across South Africa.

Each student was asked to list their top five employers, with no parameters or suggestions provided, just purely based on their understanding of the graduate employment marketplace. This data was then mined, the answers separated into 22 industry categories and the top three companies in each sector were invited to attend the awards ceremony on the 7th of December, making it an elite celebration.

To enhance this celebration, the Top 100 students of 2023 were also invited to the event and announce the winners, as it was their voice that made this recognition possible. This also ensured an exciting gathering of top employers, recruiters and the top students in the country.

The evening culminated in the announcement of the Top 5 overall employers, an award scooped by Absa in 2022.

Laura Barker, founder of the GradStar Awards and CEO of BlackBark Productions says, ‘We are over the moon to be hosting the Momentum Metropolitan Students’ Choice Awards. These young people are our future and are here to take the country forward, so their opinions matter and we need to hear what they think. We developed the Momentum Metropolitan Students’ Choice Awards as a demonstration of our commitment to our future leaders and corporate South Africa by joining the gaps in graduate recruitment.’

Annette Breetzke from Momentum Metropolitan says they chose to support the awards as a commitment to South Africa and its talent, commenting, ‘Talented and enthusiastic graduates with the right attitude have the world and job market at their feet. We want to make sure that we, as employers, present ourselves as compelling and attractive to job-seekers. The competition to attract talent is fierce and by supporting initiatives like this, we demonstrate that we are open to listening and learning to become employers of choice for this generation.’

CategoryFirst PlaceSecond PlaceThird Place
AutomotiveMercedes BenzBMWToyota
Accounting & AuditingDeloittePwCKPMG
Banking & InvestmentsAbsaFNBStandard Bank
Broadcasting & MediaMultichoiceSABCMedia24
ConsultingDeloittePwCKPMG
Consulting EngineeringHatchZutariAecom
Energy, Chemicals & Heavy EngineeringSasolBPSappi
FMCGUnileverCoca-ColaTiger Brands
HealthcareNetcareLancetMediclinic
Healthcare InsuranceDiscoveryMomentumLiberty
ICTGoogleAmazonAccenture
Industrial TechnologiesSiemensSamsungABB
InsuranceOld MutualSanlamSantam
LegalBowmansWebber WentzelWerksmans
Leisure, Travel & HospitalitySAASanParksSun International
Mining & MineralsAnglo AmericanSibanyeExxaro
PharmaceuticalAspenJohnson & JohnsonCipla
Property & ConstructionWBHOConcorMurray & Roberts
RetailShopriteWoolworthsMassmart
State-owned EnterprisesTransnetSARBEskom
TelecommunicationsVodacomMTNTelkom
Transport & LogisticsDHLImperialDSV

Top overall preferred employers:

  1. Absa
  2. Deloitte
  3. FNB
  4. PwC
  5. Standard Bank

The full research report provides insights into students’ preferences in graduate programmes and its contents include their preferred employers, making it a must read for all those involved in the graduate recruitment space. The questions were formulated by forming a steering group of graduate recruiters from organisations including McKinsey, Old Mutual, Absa and bp, ensuring the content is up-to-date, valid and relevant.

The research report is available for download from the GradStar website www.gradstar.com.

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