Graduate Programmes in Cape Town, Johannesburg, Durban and across South Africa

Welcome. At EY you’ll be able to learn in an innovative, progressive environment and develop quickly within your chosen career path. Read on for the support, advice and tips you need to apply for one of our programmes.

Apply to available openings in any of the programmes listed on this page

Our graduate programmes, bursary opportunities and business experience programmes focus on audit, tax, consulting, strategy and transactions in Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town.

When you join EY, you join a global firm with people at its center. Our culture is as diverse as it is inclusive, and we welcome those who think differently and work smartly. You’ll be challenged by the incredible work you have the opportunity to do when you join this firm and, through your exposure to our diverse clients, people and programmes, you’ll grow faster than you would anywhere else.

Below are the details of our application process for each programme. We’ve made it as clear and as helpful as possible so you know what to expect. Don’t miss out on the programme you are interested in so please read through all the information below to understand what you need to do to be eligible to join and how to apply.

Our Programmes

Applications for all programmes listed below will open throughout the course of the year. Please feel free to click on the titles to find out more about the programmes and what qualifications are required and keep a close eye for when they open.

Assurance/Audit Graduate Programme

General Information

We offer three-year trainee contracts to top-calibre students who are studying towards a Chartered Accountancy qualification at a SAICA-accredited university. Contracts are issued while you are still studying and confirmed when you successfully complete your qualification.

You can apply to start articles once you have completed your Honours/CTA/PGDA

Articles will be served in our Audit service line over a period of three years. During this time, you will be required to write two Qualifying Board Exams. The first is written in January of your first year and the second is written in November of your second year. You are also required to work 3600 core hours and achieve SAICA competencies over your three years of training.

Requirements

To pursue a career as a Chartered Accountant you will need to enrol for a BCom Accounting degree or an equivalent CA(SA) undergraduate qualification at a SAICA accredited university. Once you have completed your degree you will be required to complete your Certificate in the Theory of Accounting (CTA)/ Honours/ Post Graduate Diploma in Accounting (PGDA). Our firm is diverse, so if you are thinking about a profession in Tax, International Tax, or Transfer Pricing, then our Graduate Programme is also for you.
Business Experience Programme: Audit

General Information

Our Business Experience Programme affords students the opportunity to develop skills such as teamwork, interpersonal, communication and basic auditing skills. We ensure that students are adequately equipped to tackle the business world. We also assist students identify their skills and competencies from a range of assessment techniques, which will help enhance their potential as effective team members within a professional services organization.

The programme offers students an opportunity to learn more about EY, the services lines and client portfolios. Students who experience our working environment and then return to their academic studies find their studies more relevant as they can relate it to their working experience.

Requirements

To participate in the Business Experience Programme, you will need to enrol for a B Com Accounting degree or an equivalent CA(SA) undergraduate qualification at a SAICA accredited university. This programme is open to all undergraduate students including 1^st year students.
The Tax Trainee Programme
General Information

Both SAICA Tax Elective trainees, and SAIT trainees will join this programme.

The SAICA Tax Elective programme offers trainees will gain significant experience across multiple service offerings, and sectors with long-term opportunities for focusing in one or more areas.

The SAIT programme, for SAIT tax trainees, is within our Global Compliance and Reporting (GCR – Tax, Finance and Payroll Operate) subservice line which includes Indirect Tax (ITX), Personal Advisory Services (PAS) and Financial Reporting (Finance Operate). Within our subservice lines, SAIT tax trainees will gain experience in:

Tax compliance: Preparation and review of corporate income tax returns

Audit of tax support: Corporate tax audit of companies

Tax accounting and reporting, and financial reporting: Tax accounting of companies, preparation of Annual Financial Statement for companies (tax and accounting)

The broad range of experience across the different subservice lines are there to build your professional expertise in a well-rounded tax and finance professional.

Requirements

To join this programme you will need CTA level 02, or BSc/BCom Honours degree in Tax/Accounting/ Accounting Science. Read more
Indirect tax (ITX) Training Programme

General Information

Through this programme to work with clients in various industries as part of a globally integrated network of specialists with high quality tax, legal, data technology and commercial backgrounds. You will learn more about indirect taxes and how they impact our clients. Our indirect tax team specialises in consumption taxes, such as value-added tax, and taxes impacting global trade, such as customs and excise duties. You will have the opportunity to specialise in either of these disciplines. The work is technically challenging, creative and requires you to work closely with our clients’ businesses. With the support of our strong team with proven expertise in this area and the opportunity to progress, you will learn and accelerate your career. The career opportunities in these areas are truly of a global nature with governments around the world increasingly focussing on these taxes as a source of government revenue. The career opportunities in these areas are truly of a global nature with governments around the world increasingly focussing on these taxes as a source of government revenue.

Requirements

To join this programme you will need a BCom Honours Accounting/Tax; or an LLB with completed articles (admitted attorney). Read more
Internal Audit Graduate Programme

General information:

Internal Audit naturally plays a key role in enabling organisations to build a brand of trust as they move along their transformational journeys. However, as complexity and disruption increase in the business, internal audit will need to have a much bigger advisory role to sustain stakeholder trust in organizations. It will need to provide broader insights on all the risks that an organization faces.

Requirements:

A Bachelor of Commerce (BCom) Honour’s degree and above with a minimum overall academic average of 65% and above in Internal Audit.
Actuarial and Quants Graduate Programme

General information:

As a member either the actuarial or quants teams, you’ll make a significant technical contribution to client engagements and internal projects. The FSRM team advises clients on specialised areas such as: enterprise risk; liquidity risk; credit risk; operational risk; compliance risk; capital management; market risk; structured finance; and quantitative services.

The quantitative advisory services team applies quantitative techniques to help institutions develop and validate risk measurement and valuation methodologies that enable hybrid forms of cooperation and competition.

Requirements:

An Honours or Master’s degree in Actuarial Science, Mathematics, Statistics and/or Data Science.
Forensic and Integrity Services Graduate Programme
General information:

Successful organisations rely on their reputation for keeping promises, respecting laws and behaving ethically to maintain stakeholder trust. We assist our clients and their legal counsel to investigate facts, resolve disputes and manage regulatory challenges. We put integrity at the heart of compliance programmes to help our clients better manage ethical and reputational risks.

Our integrated approach, aided by forensic technology, aims to enhance areas of perceived weakness or issues including: governance, controls, culture and data insights. Our professionals include forensic accountants and technologists, certified fraud examiners, anti-corruption professionals and money laundering and sanctions investigators. We work with our clients' legal counsel (internal or external) and compliance and internal audit departments to investigate complex issues.

Requirements:

A minimum overall academic average of 65% and above in one of the following fields of study:

BCom/BCom Honours degree Accounting/Auditing;

BCom Honours degree in Forensic Accountancy;

LLB; and

BSc Degree in Computer Science.

Strategy and Transactions Graduate Programme
General Information

In Strategy and Transactions (SaT), you’ll be part of a team that leads digital change through four key areas:

Strategy and ecosystem: Learn how clients identify new partners and M&A targets to support their digital growth.

Capital and portfolio review: Become skilled in advising clients on how to get their capital allocation balance right. Continuously review their business portfolio to ensure they are making the right investments and divestments.

Deal process: Deploy a deep analysis of new types of diligence when evaluating a target. This might include undertaking cyber diligence or applying intellectual property analysis.

Integration: You’ll work with companies to target multiple digital assets simultaneously and guide their integration to help deliver maximum value quickly.

Requirements

Applications are open to those in their final year of study at the time of applying; and studying towards a BCom and/or Bachelor of Business Science (BBusSc) degree. A minimum overall academic average of 65% and above in one of the following fields of study: Finance, Economics, Statistics, Information Management, Actuarial Sciences is required.
Vacation Work - Audit

General Information

EY understands the importance of personal and career development. Choosing to join our organisation for short period over your University holidays is a fantastic way to gain all the exposure you will need to understand more about our organisational culture, people, business and clients. Vacation work includes interaction with clients and first-hand audit experience.

Requirements

The programme applications open in January and June and is open to second, third and final year students studying a relevant accounting degree at a SAICA accredited University. Students with an academic average of 60% and above are invited to apply.
Bursary Programme

General information

EY is committed to growing and transforming the Chartered Accountancy profession. Importantly, we believe in individual development from school level through university and into the world of work.

Bursaries are awarded to individuals who we believe have the commitment to qualify as a Chartered Accountant and an academic record which indicates the ability to do so with due regard to financial need. In return for the bursary, the student is required to work at EY for the duration of their training contract (a minimum of three years).

Eligibility requirements

The first requirement to be eligible for a bursary is South African citizenship and a valid South African identity document. We require an academic record of a minimum of four A’s, excluding Life Orientation; that you will be studying toward a relevant CA degree (three to four years) and a year Accounting Honours/Certificate in Theory in Accounting (CTA). Further, you should be accepted and/or enrolled at a SAICA (South African Institute of Chartered Accountants) accredited University. The list of accredited Universities can be found on the Matric bursary page.

Visit the Matric Bursary page for more information and to apply to the programme today.
Supply Chain Graduate Programme

General information:

The advisory supply chain domain addresses an organisation’s overarching end-to-end supply chain and operations strategy to grow, optimise and protect their operations. In the past companies sold products and services through linear value chains. But innovation and disruption have pushed companies into a new supply chain model driven by digital ecosystems and market networks that enable hybrid forms of cooperation and competition.

Requirements:

A final year Bachelor of Engineering or Bachelor of Science Honours degree and above with a minimum overall academic average of 65% and above in the field of Industrial Engineering.
Technology Consulting Graduate Programme
General information:

Technology is at the centre of business change, enabling organisations to transform their business and operating models and respond nimbly to competitive threats. EY technology advisory teams operate in the following domains:

Cyber Security SAP Financial Services

Governance, Risk and Compliance Technology            SAP Non-Financial Services

Data and Analytics SAP Treasury and Loans

Technology Transformation IT Advisory

Requirements:

A Bachelor of Commerce (BCom) Honour’s degree and above with a minimum overall academic average of 65% and above in one of the following fields of study:

Information Technology                                                 Big Data Analytics

Informatics                                                                        Information Systems

Computer Engineering       Computer Science
CcaSS Graduate Programme
General information:

Our team is comprises sustainability/ESG practitioners, environmental and social scientists, engineers and accountants/financial experts working across disciplines to solve for our clients’ challenges, whether around enhancing their sustainability/ESG performance, improving their data and disclosures or measuring the impact of their activities.

Requirements:

An Environmental or Social Science Honours degree and above with a minimum overall academic average of 65% and above in one of the following fields of study:

Environmental or human rights law;

Engineering: renewable energy, civil or chemical; and

Development finance, sustainable development, impact finance or business administration with a sustainability focus.
Technology and Risk (IT Audit) Programme
General information:

Technology risk can help clients to achieve sustainable growth by supporting their efforts to protect their business performance by providing trusted communications on internal control and regulatory compliance to investors, management, regulators, customers and other stakeholders. The technology and risk team accomplishes this by assessing the technology risks introduced to businesses through:

Understanding their strategies, initiatives, processes and issues around IT controls, cybersecurity attestation, cloud assurance, certification, contractual compliance or software asset management.

Providing services that help navigate through the digital complexity to make confident and faster decisions.

Requirements:

A minimum overall academic average of 65% and above in one of the following fields of study:

BCom Information Systems/Science;

BCom Honours in Internal Audit; and

BSc Computer Science.

That Audit Podcast

Watch EY Africa’s latest student-focussed podcast series. Hosted by our leaders, managers and trainees, we discuss the stories behind the numbers to demystify our audit business aartnt EY. Learn more about our business leaders and pers; what a day in the life of a trainee at EY is really like; the digital audit, AI and the changing role of the auditor; building a career at EY, and more.

Watch Now

All our Graduate, Vacation, Internship and Business Experience Programme openings can be found by clicking this link. If you are a first-time applicant, first register your profile and then select the programme you are interested in applying for. Remember to attach following:

Curriculum vitae
Identification Document copy
Matric certificate
Academic Transcript to date

Apply today

I am EY. Are you?

For our latest jobs, news and insights. Sign up here

We are dreamers, adventurers, truth-finders, musicians, drone pilots. We are auditors, tax specialists, data scientists, robotic process engineers and more. Here are some of our stories: I am EY

Curious about working at EY? Ask our Candidate Assistant. Chat now

I am EY Highlights Reel

Fun on the ‘I am EY’ set

NextGen South Africa

EY sponsors the NextGen Programme aimed at female learners in Grades 10, 11 and 12. Read more about this initiative.

Click here

Interview tips

Curious about EY interviews?

TechMBA free to all employees: Our response to the rise of tech

By Jabulile Kubheka, EY Africa Talent Leader

“The Actuarial recruitment process is a competitive process, so one has to have a lot more to offer than just a good academic record. I’m currently an Actuarial Associate working in the Actuarial Advisory Division at the EY Johannesburg office. I wanted to join EY for the exposure to a variety of different projects and companies. I was intrigued by the company culture and global mindset of the organisation. It’s also very exciting to be able to be able to apply my skills, interact with clients and add value to the assignments I’m working on.”

Terri Elie | Actuarial Services