These are the South African companies students dream of working for

 ·16 Aug 2016

The South African Graduate Employers Association has announced the winners of its 2016 SAGEA Employer Awards, naming the most favoured companies by South African students across 24 sectors.

Launched in 2010, the survey is conducted on an annual basis to help SAGEA members to review the success of their graduate campaigns and help plan their future recruitment programmes.

Research for the 2016 list took place between March and May 2016, using an online questionnaire, drawing 2,052 candidate responses.

Each candidate was asked to name up to two organisations whom they felt had the best graduate programme in specific sectors or industry groups with which they were familiar.

There were no lists of organisations to choose from – their responses were entirely unprompted – to help ensure that no preconceptions or assumptions were made regarding a predefined group of employers which candidates may associate with specific sectors, SAGEA said.

In the accountancy sector, PwC gained a quarter of the vote, while Deloitte and KPMG were very closely placed in second and third positions.

Between them, Media24, SABC and MultiChoice gained more than half of the votes within the media sector. The retail sector was very closely fought, with few votes separating the top three employers, the group said.

“Three organisations secured first place in two different sectors: Sasol gained the most votes in both the chemical & pharmaceutical and engineering or industrial sectors, Unilever secured the FMCG and manufacturing sectors, while Discovery was in first place for both the health and insurance sectors,” the group said.

Here are the companies South African students chose as the best:

Category Company Runners-up
Accountancy PwC Deloitte, KPMG
Automotive BMW Mercedes-Benz, VW
Charity or voluntary DVB-SPCA Gift of the Givers, The United Nations
Chemical and pharmaceutical Sasol Aspen, Unilever
Commercial and retail banking Standard Bank FNB, Barclays
Consulting (IT) Accenture Deloitte, KPMG
Consulting (Management) McKinsey & Company Bain & Company, Accenture
Engineering or industrial Sasol Eskom, Anglo American
Fast-moving consumer goods Unilever Procter & Gamble, Tiger Brands
Health Discovery MediClinic, Netcare
Insurance Discovery Old Mutual, Sanlam
Investment banking Investec RMB, Allan Gray
IT hardware or software Microsoft IBM, EOH
Law Webber Wentzel Norton Rose Fulbright, Bowman Gilfillan
Leisure Sun International Tsogo Sun, Protea Hotel
Manufacturing Unilever Nampak, SAB
Media Media24 SABC, Multichoice
Mining and resources Anglo American Anglo Platinum, Sasol
Property Pam Golding Property24, Seeff
Public sector National Treasury SARS, Auditor General
Retail Woolworths TFG, Shoprite
Telecommunications Vodacom MTN, Telkom
Transport of logistics Imperial Logistics Transnet, Barloworld
Utilities Eskom Rand Water, Sasol

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