The importance of relevant post-school training for South Africa's just transition

The 2025 Senior Certificate results were released on Monday with great jubilation from all corners- Our future leaders have done the country proud. Alas, a new headache begins as TVET colleges and universities reopen this week, with the annual scramble for space in a sector and ecosystem which is highly oversubscribed and underfunded and further exacerbated by all kinds of diversions like unregistered institutions, bogus qualifications and higher demand than supply for thousands who made though their first 12 years of education.

As the class of 2025 begin to weigh their options and rethink their choices, their decisions are not only about individual futures. They are about whether our just transition will translate into jobs, competitiveness and inclusion.

For learners who received results earlier this week, the question is not simply “What can I study?” but rather “Where is the economy going and will my skills be relevant there?” For policymakers, employers and investors, the question is more pressing: are our education pathways aligned with the jobs in the future?

South Africa is already seeing clear signals of where investment and demand are heading. Renewable energy projects are scaling rapidly. Grid expansion, storage, electric mobility and industrial decarbonisation are no longer hypothetical. Climate-resilient infrastructure, water systems and municipal services are becoming economic priorities.

Yet our education and training system continues to move at a pace set by the past. Curricula take years to change. Career guidance remains misaligned with labour-market realities. However, there has been some progress made. For instance, South Africa now has a clearer picture of where transition-driven jobs will come, such as renewable energy, grid expansion, electric mobility, climate-resilient infrastructure and green manufacturing

The institutions meant to carry this transition such as universities, TVET colleges, and SETAs are under strain. Many TVET colleges remain poorly resourced and disconnected from the realities of industry. Furthermore, South Africa has no shortage of education institutions tasked with building the skills for a just transition. What we do lack is a system that turns this capacity into results. Too many TVET colleges remain under-resourced and disconnected from employers and local needs for localised industries.

What matters most now is not just how many people we train, but what kind of skills system we build. Furthermore, the impact of the transition is not abstract. It is geographically specific and sectorally uneven. In Mpumalanga’s coal belt, workers and communities need site-based reskilling linked to energy, rehabilitation and economic-diversification projects — not certificates detached from employment. In the Eastern Cape’s automotive heartland in Gqeberha, the shift from the internal combustion engines to electric mobility requires the deliberate reskilling of artisans, technicians, engineers and component manufacturers before jobs are lost, not after.

Curriculum reform must also accelerate, particularly in applied and vocational streams. TVET colleges must be expanded, better equipped and embedded in regional industrial and economic diversification plans. Worker reskilling & upskilling programmes must be scaled across declining and transforming sectors, with income support and credible job pathways attached.

Beyond the resource and services economy, there is need for investment in social sciences and humanities as well as business and public sector governance and administration.  Our systemic failure has not only centred on the lack of rocket scientists and the engineers. Amongst others, municipal governance capacity, monitoring and evaluation, gender mainstreaming, environmental law, social facilitation and dialogue — these skills determine whether society is at one and ultimately, whether projects succeed or fail at a local level. Green finance, project preparation and climate-risk management are now central to investment decisions. Artificial intelligence applications, from energy modelling to early-warning systems and weather forecasting, are becoming integral to planning and resilience.

Skills investment cannot be treated as corporate social responsibility or left to the public sector alone. It is a competitiveness and risk-mitigation strategy. Firms that fail to build skills pipelines aligned to their project pipelines will face delays, cost overruns and social resistance. Those that co-invest in training with TVETs, universities and local partners will secure labour supply, community buy-in and long-term resilience.

For learners and parents making post-Matric choices, the message is equally clear. Universities are not the only route to relevance.  South Africa has spent years diagnosing its skills problem. What is missing is execution at scale: funded programmes, reformed curricula, coordinated institutions and private-sector co-investment tied to real projects.

The uncomfortable truth is this: South Africa’s energy transition will succeed or fail not on the quality of its policy frameworks, but on whether its education and skills system recalibrate fast enough to meet current and future demand.

The just transition will not be delivered by ambition alone. It will be delivered by who we train, what we teach, where we train and how quickly we act. The Matric class of 2025 deserves an education system that is honest about that reality. So does the country.

Zimasa Vazi, Senior Manager Stakeholder Engagements, Presidential Climate Commission

*** The views expressed here do not necessarily represent those of Independent Media or IOL.

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