South Africa does not have a youth potential problem. It has a skills alignment problem—worsened by geography and legacy.
Young people in South Africa are not just unemployed; they are unequally positioned in an economy where opportunity is concentrated in urban centres, while vast numbers in rural and previously disadvantaged areas are excluded from the infrastructure needed to prepare for the modern labour market. As the global economy accelerates toward clean energy, automation, and digitalisation, too many of our youth are being left behind by the skills bus.
At CHIETA, we are changing this. Through the rollout of Smart Skills Centres in Saldanha Bay (Western Cape), Gqeberha (Eastern Cape), and Secunda (Mpumalanga), we are bringing future-fit training directly to the communities that need it most. These centres are not only about access—they are about relevance: offering training in welding, green hydrogen technologies, coding, data literacy, and chemical sector capabilities aligned with both local economic priorities and international trends.
If we want inclusive growth, economic resilience, and a globally competitive workforce, we must stop treating skills development as an adjunct to education policy. It is an economic imperative and our best chance at turning South Africa’s demographic dividend into a national asset.
Global Disruption, Local Gaps
The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2023 makes the case plain: 85 million jobs globally are expected to be displaced by automation by 2030, while 97 million new roles are set to emerge, requiring new blends of human, digital, and green economy skills.
These roles, ranging from robotics technicians to sustainability analysts, will not be filled by traditional degree holders alone. They require adaptable, practical, tech-savvy workers with job-ready competencies. The problem? South Africa’s labour market is still largely geared toward paper qualifications, not practical capability.
This mismatch is undermining both our growth prospects and our youth potential. And without urgent correction, the global economy will move on without us.
Future Skills Are Borderless
At CHIETA, our approach to skills development starts with a simple but powerful assumption: a South African learner should be trained not just to meet local demand, but to compete globally. From green hydrogen specialists to chemical process artisans, the future workforce must be both locally anchored and globally mobile.
That’s why our Smart Skills Centres are designed to deliver portable, demand-led capabilities. They connect young people to real opportunities in sectors like clean energy, industrial automation, and advanced manufacturing, where demand is not only growing but borderless.
A young person who can install solar panels or operate hydrogen electrolysers is not locked to a geography they are equipped to plug into global supply chains, foreign markets, and cross-border innovation hubs. Skills are now passports and we must start treating them that way.
The Green Economy: A Missed Opportunity—For Now
South Africa has one of the richest endowments of solar, wind, and green hydrogen potential in the world. We also sit atop the platinum group metals critical to the global energy transition. But natural resources alone won’t build an economy, we need human capital to match.
Training environmental engineers, hydrogen technicians, water treatment operators, and renewable energy artisans must move from pilot projects to industrial-scale rollout.
CHIETA’s strategy is focused on this exact nexus, using demand-led skills planning to position youth as the frontline of green economy growth.
Rethinking TVET and Entrepreneurial Education
We also need to discard the outdated idea that vocational education is a ‘second-tier’ option. Globally, the demand for technically skilled workers is rising faster than the demand for traditional graduates. South Africa needs artisan welders, AI technicians, chemical lab assistants, and coding specialists far more urgently than it needs more generalist degree holders.
Equally, we must invest in entrepreneurial education not just to help youth find jobs, but to empower them to build their own businesses. Every skills development programme should integrate entrepreneurial capability, access to mentorship, and seed capital pathways.
A National Mandate, Not a Government Burden
Solving youth unemployment is not the state’s burden to carry alone. It is a whole-economy mandate. Industry must open more learnerships and provide meaningful workplace exposure. Curriculum designers must build with business needs in mind. Private investors
- Yershen Pillay, CEO of CHIETA
