CSIR GIS Internship, Stellenbosch

CSIR Built Environment unit has a vacant position for an Internship: GIS Application in the Planning Support Systems competence area. The incumbent will be expected to contribute to research work in the fields of urban and regional planning and regional development with a specific focus on GIS-based spatial analysis and planning support.

Key responsibilities:

• Undertake on the job GIS Accessibility training.
• Maintain GIS databases.
• Undertake GIS mapping.
• Establish and update reference databases for projects outputs.
• Produce tables and writing basic reports.
• Conduct literature searches.
• Conduct desktop research.

Qualifications, skills and experience:

• A Bachelor’s degree with specialisation in GIS and subjects related to geography, town and regional planning, development planning or related fields.
• Must be proficient in the use of GIS and database. Proficiency in ArcGIS will be advantageous.
• Good interpersonal and team skills.
• Ability to work independently, as well as in an interdisciplinary team.
• Must be self motivated.
• Problem-solving and solution-seeking orientation.
• Must have good communication, presentation and writing skills.
• An interest in spatial analysis and map-making will be a recommendation.
• Must have working knowledge of MS Office Package.

Closing date: 08 November 2013

Apply here - https://candidate.csir.co.za/psp/hr91prd_cgw/EMPLOYEE/HRMS/c/HRS_HRAM.HRS_CE.GBL?Page=HRS_CE_JOB_DTL&Action=A&JobOpeningId=303269&SiteId=1&PostingSeq=1

Where/How to find Geospatial/Geomatics Bursaries

If you are seeking Geospatial/Geomatics related bursaries, please see the brief description of where and how to find bursaries from industry professional bodies and government organisations:

"Plato as the Geomatics professional body co-ordinate all bursary applications on behalf of the institutes ie. IMSSA, SAGI and GISSA. IMSSA and SAGI contribute funds for bursaries towards undergraduate studies and GISSA (Geomatics Development Fund) towards bursaries for post graduate studies.

Various Government Departments and municipalities specially in the big metropolitan(s) takes interns and also make funds available for bursaries. 

Department of Rural Development and Land Reform (DRDLR) is one of the biggest supporters of bursaries towards the geomatics programmes. Bursaries only apply for studies at accredited universities and universities of technology.

Persons applying for bursaries can send their applications to PLATO, or the DRDLR, other government departments and large municipalities. Universities normally also have a list of institutions providing bursaries. Calls for bursaries are normally widely advertised.

Provincial Departments as well as the National Department of COGTA and Treasury has started to support GISc development and capacity building in rural Municipalities in recognition of the scarce skills and need to retain resources in the rural areas to assist with the IDP(s) and NDP(s) for infrastructure development announced by Government."

Here are the links to the mentioned organisations:

http://www.plato.org.za/

http://www.gissa.org.za/

http://www.sagi.co.za/

http://www.ims.org.za/

http://www.dla.gov.za/

http://www.ngi.gov.za/

http://www.cogta.gov.za/

Teach yourself GIS for FREE

Do you want to get involved in GIS, but can not afford to attend the very expensive degree, diploma or corporate software training programs? You can use the massive amount of free information on the internet to kick start your training for FREE.

I would definitely recommend any aspired GIS professionals to try and obtain a formal GIS qualification via the various degree, diploma, certificate programs in the long run, but you can learn quit a bit from the free online resources without spending large amounts of money.

I spent a hour or so searching the internet for free GIS related resources and came up with the following:

Introduction to GIS
http://hcl.harvard.edu/libraries/maps/gis/tutorials.html


ESRI Software This is the most widely used GIS software in SA and the world. The software is very expensive, but you can download a two month trial for free. It will be very good to have some exposure to this software though. They have free as well as paid for training courses.

• Training - http://training.esri.com/gateway/index.cfm?fa=search.results&cannedsearch=2
• Software trail - http://www.esri.com/software/arcgis/arcgis-for-desktop/free-trial
• Support - http://support.esri.com/en/
• Forum - http://forums.arcgis.com/

QGIS Software
This is free & opensourse software, so you can download and use it for training or professional work.

• Software - http://www.qgis.co.za/en/site/
• Training - http://www.qgis.co.za/en/docs/index.html

Do an internet search for "opensource GIS software" and you will find many more options.

Learn GIS for free
Here are two links that could assist in finding free GIS courses:

• http://www.gislounge.com/learn-gis-for-free/
• http://freegiscenter.blogspot.com/2010/05/free-gis-tutorials-exercises.html

Data
Here you can find free data to use whilst training/learning or even for professional commercial work:

• Collect at your nearest NGI office - http://www.ngi.gov.za/
• Free online data - http://www.geocomm.com/

Apart from the few links I posted here, there is a large amount of free resources available on the internet and there is no reason why you should not be able to teach you quite a bit about the subject/software/data without having to pay for anything.

Good luck!