Unlocking youth potential to boost South Africa's energy sector

THE renewable energy industry is booming in Southern Africa and beyond.

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However, we face a growing challenge in making the transition to a more sustainable energy future: the talent pipeline.

The sector has typically relied on older, experienced professionals from the legacy power sector, but they are ageing and retiring, and young people are not entering the sector in meaningful numbers, leaving us without future talent to continue driving the industry forward.

Fixing this gap to enable real transformation and long-term success will require collaborative action from both industry and the youth themselves, as well as a new approach to how we educate, inspire, and involve the next generation.

The importance of starting early

One of the issues we currently face is that education initiatives and recruitment drives into the sector are targeting people who have already completed high school.

The reality is that this is already too late.

To build a sustainable workforce, the journey into the energy sector needs to start as early as Grade 10, when students begin to make subject and career choices.

More technical qualifications relevant to the energy industry should be introduced at this stage, not just at the post-matric level.