Ukiyo’s new app connects South African students to their first jobs

Ukiyo, a South African educational technology company, has launched a mobile platform it says addresses a gap in how young people in the country access opportunities, from bursaries and accommodation to internships and mental health support.

The Global Student Support Platform (GSSP) combines scholarships, job listings, mentorship, wellness services, tutoring, and career development tools in a single app. Ukiyo is positioning it as a marketplace for youth development services, free for students to use.

The launch comes as South Africa‘s youth unemployment crisis deepens. In the first quarter of 2026, the unemployment rate of youth aged 15 to 24 in South Africa stood at 60.90%, while around 3.9 million young people in the same age bracket are classified as not being in employment, education, or training (NEET).

For Nozuko Mzamo, founder of Ukiyo, the issue is a lack of systems that connect ambitious young people to opportunities.

“South Africa does not have a shortage of ambitious young people. It has a shortage of integrated pathways into economic participation and systems that connect young people to what they need to succeed,” Mzamo said in a statement. “We built GSSP to support the full journey, from finding a place to study and securing education funding, to building a career and accessing mentorship.”

On GSSP, students can explore study options, access mentorship opportunities, connect with accommodation providers, find wellness and mental health support, attend skills development workshops, and search for internships, graduate programmes, and entry-level jobs.

Founded in 2017 after operating informally since 2014, Ukiyo was created to tackle youth unemployment by addressing some of its underlying causes, including limited access to information and skills development.

Mzamo said the idea took shape after she observed that opportunities discussed in corporate boardrooms rarely reached the students who needed them. Ukiyo built GSSP to close that information gap, particularly for young people outside major urban centres.

The company noted that GSSP has attracted more than 4,200 users who have generated over 1,300 click-throughs to bursary and scholarship opportunities and more than 2,100 click-throughs to job listings in its private beta. Users currently discover opportunities through filters and searches, but Mzamo noted that Ukiyo plans to introduce intelligent matching features in future releases.

“Whether you’re figuring out what to study and where, looking for bursaries or scholarships to fund your studies, needing academic, psychosocial or career readiness support, hunting for student deals, or searching for your first job, GSSP walks with you through every one of those milestones and equips you with the skills and information you need at each stage,” Mzamo said.

Ukiyo works with corporate partners, including higher education institutions, funders, employers and service providers to bring opportunities and support services onto the platform, according to Mzamo. Some of its current partners include Thrive Accommodation, North-West University, The LINK by Airlink, and Emeris.

With its launch, GSSP competes with platforms such as LinkedIn, Pnet, and Jobox that help students and graduates discover internships, graduate programmes, and entry-level jobs. However, Mzamo argued that most existing services focus on only one part of the student journey.

“That’s exactly the distinction: they address one or two pieces of the puzzle,” she said. “GSSP covers the full cycle, from studies to funding, to skills development, to finding that first job.”

Mzamo noted that the platform had already started including global exchange programme opportunities, with plans to expand its scope beyond South Africa.

“We’re expanding our research to cover Pan-African and broader international markets, but for now, the opportunities on GSSP are for South African youth, whether they choose to stay, study, or work here or abroad,” she said.