About the SAGEA Awards

“Digital” refers to all digital elements of your graduate marketing campaign. These are generally accessible by all members of the public but specifically used to target and attract graduate candidates. These can include, but are not limited to, external internet sites, social media sites (e.g. Facebook/Meta, Instagram, Twitter, Tik-Tok, LinkedIn, YouTube), virtual reality, email campaigns, teaser campaigns using QR codes, etc.

Eligibility

• All content must be current or have been used as part of your graduate campaign in the past 12 months.
• There will be separate awards (gold, silver and bronze) for organisations with a South African headcount of less than 1 000 and those with a South African headcount of 1000+
• Our entries will open on Monday 11 August, with a closing date of Friday 05 September 2025.
• Only one submission per entrant will be accepted. PDF submissions are limited to a maximum of 10 pages per category and an ideal file size not exceeding 8MB. You will need to include a copy / link for each digital element used in your campaign. You must, of course, decide what exactly you wish to include.
• If your company ran more than one campaign, you will need to submit separate entries for each. We do, however, recognise that social media campaigns are often linked (e.g. using social media to drive traffic to your company website).
• Please note that submission is restricted to full SAGEA members only. Submissions from Agencies or Affiliate SAGEA members will not be accepted.
• Award entries must be submitted by the employer and not by their agents or solution providers. Where an employer has engaged an agent or solution provider to develop campaign material, the solution provider may work with the employer on their submission, but the entry must be submitted by the employer.

How to Submit an Entry

This year we will be combining employer and candidate votes for this Award.  Candidates will have cast their votes for “best online media” as part of the SAGEA Candidate Insights research conducted earlier in 2025 and any votes received will be added (using a pre-determined formula) to votes received from Employers.  Candidate votes will not count if an employer does not submit an award entry in this category.  Entrants will need to upload graphics / links to their digital marketing material.  All SAGEA members will be able to access Employer submissions and vote accordingly from Monday 15 September 2025 to Monday 29 September 2025.

Key Judging Criteria

• Concept and strategic approach – how does your digital strategy support your overall recruitment strategy and objectives?
• Innovation and creativity – is the material creative and unique in its approach to digital marketing? Is / Are the use of channel/s innovative? Is the design in line with the company’s employer value proposition?
• Relevance – is there a strategy behind the idea? How much research and investigation has been carried out in the identification of the channel as appropriate for the target audience?
• Choice of media – have you chosen the right media platform to develop your campaign to your target audience?
• Usability of the website / social media links – ease of navigation, effectiveness of search functionality, are sections and pages linked logically, are headings clear?
• Visual design – overall appeal, first impression, layout, use of colour and consistency of look and feel.
• Content – use of language, message portrayed, relevance, verbosity, and detail. Does the content apply to candidates’ personal experiences?
• Multimedia – use of demonstrations, promotional videos, podcasts, or interactive tours. Are they relevant, meaningful and engaging? Do they promote the stickiness of your campaign?
• Campaign integration – if your website is a component of a greater campaign, does it tie in with the other media elements of the recruitment programme?
• Engagement – how engaging is the campaign and how effectively does it allow for two-way communication?
• Success Measures – how have you measured impact, engagement with, and the success of your campaign?

Awards

Entrants will be divided into two categories:

• Organizations with a South African headcount of less than 1 000, and
• Organizations with a South African headcount of 1 000+

The winners and runners up in each category will be identified and will receive an award (gold, silver or bronze) depending on their placing.

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“Integrated” refers to targeted and cohesive marketing strategies which extend beyond brochures, websites and other digital media forms. Examples include videos, direct marketing, competitions, events (photos), internet banner advertising, media coverage, exhibition materials, or any other media that formed part of your overall graduate recruitment campaign.

Eligibility

• All content must be current or have been used as part of your graduate campaign in the past 12 months.
• There will be separate awards (gold, silver and bronze) for organisations with a South African headcount of less than 1 000 and those with a South African headcount of 1000+
• Our closing date for entries is Friday 05 September 2025.
• Only one submission per entrant will be accepted. PDF submissions are limited to a maximum of 10 pages per category and an ideal file size not exceeding 8MB. You will need to include a copy / link for each example of print / digital / multimedia material used for your campaign. You must of course decide what exactly you wish to include.
• If your company ran more than one campaign, you will need to submit separate entries for each one.
• Please note that submission is restricted to full SAGEA members only. Submissions from Agencies or Affiliate SAGEA members will not be accepted.
• Award entries must be submitted by the employer and not by their agents or solution providers. Where an employer has engaged an agent or solution provider to develop campaign material, the solution provider may work with the employer on their submission, but the entry must be submitted by the employer.

How to Submit an Entry

This year we will be combining employer and candidate votes for this Award. Candidates will have cast their votes for “best integrated campaign” as part of the SAGEA Candidate Insights research conducted earlier in 2025 and any votes received will be added (using a pre-determined formula) to votes received from Employers.  Candidate votes will not count if an employer does not submit an award entry in this category. (Note, this will only apply to Integrated Campaign entries received for employers with a South African headcount of 1 000+).  Entrants will need to upload graphics / links to their material (e.g. YouTube clips) / photo evidence. All SAGEA members will be able to access this material and vote accordingly from Monday 15 September 2025 to Monday 29 September 2025.

Key Judging Criteria

• Concept and strategic approach – is the campaign innovative and original in its approach to attracting graduate candidates?
• Visual design – overall appeal, first impression, layout, use of colour and consistency of look and feel across the various media channels
• Is the campaign benefiting your brand and employer value proposition?
• Content – use of language, message portrayed, relevance, verbosity, and detail. Does the content apply to candidates’ personal experiences?
• Multimedia – are the various tools you use relevant, meaningful and engaging?
• Promotional design – are there mechanisms for highlighting new or important positions and/or information?
• Campaign integration – do all the elements of your graduate recruitment campaign (print / digital / multimedia) tie in together well and carry a common and consistent message?
• Diversity – does the campaign provide enough information for all graduate groups (e.g. gender / ethnicity) for them to make an informed decision?
• Overall excellence – does your overall campaign differentiate you from your competition?
• Success Measures – how have you measured impact, engagement with, and the success of your campaign?

Awards

Entrants will be divided into two categories:

• Organisations with a South African headcount of less than 1 000
• Organisations with a South African headcount of 1000+

The winners and runners up in each category will be identified and will receive an award (gold, silver or bronze) depending on their placing.

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The aim of this Award is to recognise employers that have been the most innovative in the South African graduate market. The innovative measure must be new to the organisation and/or market, something that has not been done before in the graduate attraction/employment space, is disruptive and clearly demonstrates “thinking out of the box”. Something that already exists in the graduate market cannot be ''innovative'' for the purposes of this award.

This award relates to innovations by employers - therefore innovations by solution providers, universities, professional associations etc. are not eligible for this award.

Employers must provide a written submission to be considered for this Award. These submissions will be placed on the SAGEA website and SAGEA members will be invited to vote for the best innovation.

How to Submit an Entry

Employers may submit an entry.  Entries will be uploaded on the SAGEA Awards website.  The winner will be determined by member votes for all entries received.

Award Assessment Criteria

• Vision – What are the key challenges for the organisation that were tackled by this innovation? How did you ensure that the innovation was rooted in the best practice that the organisation wished to develop?
• Description of the innovation – How was the innovation made highly relevant to work challenges? How did the innovation contribute towards the achievement of the employer’s goals?
• Stakeholder Engagement – How were people from your organisation involved in supporting this innovation?
• Impact – Does it make a difference? What evidence do you have of improved outcomes linked to overall objectives? How have you measured the success of this innovation? How do you know your innovation delivers against your graduate recruitment and development strategy?
• Innovation/Disruption – in what ways is the innovation new, different, disruptive or out of the box?

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The aim of this award is to recognise employers that provide students who complete any form of work experience whilst still studying with the best overall experience during their programme. A work experience programme refers to a period of work experience offered by an employer to students during their degree, for example, summer or winter school, vacation work, virtual internships, work integrated learning or industry-based learning.

To be considered for this award, the employer organisation should have provided quality work experience /learning experiences facilitated by mentors that plan the work experience and support it with resources.  The experience should expose the student to potential opportunities with the employer and should also involve them in important tasks/projects to hone their skills further.  The work experience programme being evaluated must be a minimum of one week (i.e. five working days) in duration.  Key measures will include feedback and ratings from students who attended the programme as well as an overview of the programme structure and content.  To be eligible for this award, feedback should be obtained from a minimum of ten students who attended the programme.

How to Submit an Entry

The fairest way to approach this award is to get feedback from students who have attended work experience initiatives with employers who would like to participate in this award.  To this end we have compiled an appropriate questionnaire with ratings which participating employers will need to send out to the students who attended their programme/s.  An email and link to the questionnaire will be provided by SAGEA to be sent out (by the employer) and completed by students between 15 September and 29 September 2025.

In addition to this, employers are required to submit a brief outline of their work experience programme and objectives together with any supporting documentation.

Award Assessment Criteria

• Objectives – Are there clear and measurable objectives set for the work experience programme? Do you students gain real insight into the employer’s business and what it would be like to work there?
• Student Engagement – Are students meaningfully engaged in real work scenarios? Do they interact with Mentors and/or Senior Management?
• Impact – This will largely be determined by feedback and evaluations to be completed by the students who attended your programme/s. Employers may have additional evidence and anecdotal feedback from students to support their entry.

The winner (gold only) will be determined based on the highest overall rating received from students who rate an employer’s programme.

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Improving diversity in recruitment and retention is a strategic priority for most, if not all our members. This award seeks to recognise an employer who is a real change agent, who attracts, recruits and supports diverse candidates into their young talent pipeline, and is making a marked difference to the diversity of the organisation.  We are interested in employers that promote an inclusive culture and the removal of barriers. This award is for a specific initiative or holistic approach that demonstrates excellence in execution and achieves measurable results.

Eligibility

• There will be one award only in this category.
• Our closing date for entries is Friday 05 September 2025
• Only one submission per entrant will be accepted. PDF submissions are limited to a maximum of 5 pages and an ideal file size not exceeding 8MB.
• Please note that submission is restricted to full SAGEA members only. Submissions from Agencies or Affiliate SAGEA members will not be accepted.

Award Assessment Criteria

• Strategy – Demonstrates a clear strategy to use young talent attraction and recruitment as part of the organisation’s diversity and equity drive and can clearly demonstrate this through attraction campaigns targeting young talent.
• Success Measures - Must clearly explain key objectives and use people analytics to demonstrate the diversity of your young talent hires versus the wider employee population and how their recruitment impacts the organisational profile over time.
• Removal of Barriers: Should demonstrate the ways in which potential barriers to diversity and inclusion were identified and eliminated whilst maintaining inclusivity.
• Stakeholder Engagement - Should explain how key internal and/or external stakeholders were involved in formulating and executing the strategy.
• Evidence-Based - Must demonstrate quantitative and qualitative evidence of achievement against original strategy objectives, including effective retention of diverse young talent.

How to Submit an Entry

Employers may submit an entry.  Entries will be uploaded on the SAGEA Awards website.  The winner will be determined by member votes for all entries received.

Judging

Entries received will be judged by the SAGEA Board, against the Award Assessment Criteria set out above.  The Judges decision will be final.

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The aim of this award is to recognise the work of solution providers that operate in the graduate recruitment and development sector.  Solution providers in this context means organisations that provide solutions to the industry (including outsourcing) such as aptitude testing, job boards, selection tools, applicant tracking systems, learning and development, etc.

This award recognises solution provider excellence in establishing highly effective partnerships with their clients, and helping employers either:

• To implement an effective graduate attraction, selection or recruitment strategy OR
• To develop their graduates more effectively.

Employers are encouraged to nominate solution providers they have worked with for this Award.

The winner of this award must show clear alignment to the strategic goals of the organisation and evidence should be provided of how the solution provider has worked in true partnership with the employer on the design, delivery, execution and evaluation phases of the solution.

NB: entries for this award must be supported by a testimonial from the client of no more than 500 words.

How to Submit an Entry

Solution providers may submit an entry, together with a testimonial of up to 500 words from the client.   Entries will be uploaded on the SAGEA Awards website.  The winner will be determined by member votes for all entries received.  All SAGEA members will be able to access this material and judge accordingly from Monday 15 September 2025 to Monday 29 September 2025.

Key Judgement Criteria

• Vision – Does the solution provider demonstrate a high level of understanding of the client’s challenges, operation, and goals? How did they work with their client on design to ensure a perfect fit with the organisation?
• Description of key elements – How did the solution provider work as a partner with the client to evolve a design that was a perfect fit for the organisation?
• Best Practice – How did the solution provider show commitment to working in partnership with the organisation? How did the solution provider show best practice in rising to challenges? How did they build relationships, overcome problems, and support the client to achieve goals despite any challenges?
• Support – How did the solution provider involve people in the client’s organisation? How did the solution provider work with stakeholders to ensure buy-in, active support and a high level of consistency and quality?
• Impact – How did the solution provider work with the organisation to evaluate the impact of new initiatives? What evidence is there that the solution provider added real value? What quantitative or qualitative evidence can be shown of overcoming the original challenges and achieving the vision and objectives?
  
  

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This award is focused on the SAGEA Affiliate that, using work readiness initiatives has shown evidence of preparing students effectively for a smooth transition to the world of work.  Evidence must be provided that the initiative has been scaled to reach a wide student audience.

Work readiness is defined as a level of readiness or preparation to work.  It includes professionalism, appropriate behaviours, and other transitions which reflect the difference in lived experience between education and the workplace.

How to Submit an Entry

University careers services and/or Foundations may submit an entry.   Entries will be uploaded on the SAGEA Awards website.  The winner will be determined by member votes for all entries received.  All SAGEA members will be able to access this material and judge accordingly from Monday 15 September 2025 to Monday 29 September 2025.

Award Assessment Criteria

• Objectives – Are there clear and measurable objectives set for work readiness initiatives? How strong are the links to the working environment?  How have you ensured the relevance of the initiative/s to today’s job/career/employer demands?
• Description of how the initiative/s prepare graduates for work – What is innovative about your approach to preparing graduates for work?
• Stakeholder Engagement – Who are the internal and external stakeholders involved in your initiative/s? How have you involved stakeholders and obtained their support?
• Impact – Do you have evidence that your initiative/s have resulted in students being better prepared for the world of work? How have you measured this impact and how will you track the long-term impact?  How many students have benefited from your initiative/s as a percentage of your total student population?

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This award aims to recognize a University Careers Service or Foundation individual who has been nominated and voted for by employers as being responsive, student-centred and demonstrating a strong relationship building focus through the work they have done liaising with and partnering with employers. Employers will have the opportunity to nominate an individual for this award – any career service or foundation individual who receives three or more employer nominations for this award will be put forward. When nominating for this Award, employers will be asked to substantiate reasons for their nomination (i.e. why they believe the nominee is deserving of this Award). Once the nominees are finalised, and when the voting process opens, SAGEA members can vote for an award winner. Only one award (gold) will be given in this category.

Award Assessment Criteria

An individual nominated for this Award should consistently have displayed the following when interacting with employers:

• Responsive – demonstrates consistent responsiveness towards employers, is efficient in responding to requests via email and/or telephone, provides relevant information and assistance and anticipates employer needs.
• Initiative– demonstrates an ability to think outside the box and a willingness to accommodate reasonable employer requests. Has a “can-do” attitude and is willing to explore or even suggest innovative solutions to facilitate employer engagement with students – has a thorough understanding of the world of work and how to interrogate what Employers are looking for, understanding industry trends.
• Service-Orientated – consistently displays a service-oriented work ethic. Prioritizes the need to facilitate engagement between employers and students and keeps employers informed of opportunities and initiatives being offered. Reacts efficiently to requests and communicates timeously and effectively with employers and students.
• Collaborative – adopts a collaborative approach to working with employers, finding the best options for their students, and builds strong relationships and networks.

The winner (gold only) will be determined based on the highest number of votes received.

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