African insights: TVET systems and the changing world of work - the green transition

When asked about the specific competencies required for greening the economy, respondents gave general responses, such as ‘new green jobs’ or ‘agriculture’. Only 7 surveyed (of 223), mentioned a specific occupation, namely systems and installation specialists for solar energy. One mentioned a photovoltaic initiative, and three mentioned renewable energy in general. Potentially linked to manufacturing, one respondent mentioned renewable energy technology, and specifically ‘inverter design and construction’. A few respondents said: ‘gas and oil’ without relating to greening the economy. While the agriculture sector was highlighted as a priority, few respondents gave any specific competencies required to transition the sector. One hypothesis for this lack of specificity is many African TVET systems separate agricultural education from the mainstream TVET providers.

Nonetheless, the BILT Africa Scoping Survey picked up four predominant types of answers relevant to how to respond to the ‘green’ transition in TVET:

1. institutional greening responses that included greening the campus, curriculum, community, research and culture. No single intervention included all these elements. Kenya, South Africa and Mauritius specified efforts linked to greening the campus and attempts at greening curriculum.
2. introduction of short courses around an ‘employable skill’ e.g. to install, repair and maintain solar geysers. Such skills are linked to gaining a certificate rather than being an entry to an occupation. They are often sponsored by the donor community, with little engagement in identifying how to link with existing occupations, or how to integrate into formal qualifications and provision.
3. integration of generic ‘green’ skills into traditional TVET programmes e.g. by examining a sector like hospitality and integrating general sustainability skills and knowledge that industry will require.
4. creation of new programmes and qualifications on e.g. renewable energy technologies. This may require new curriculum packages, training of lecturers, new equipment and new teaching and learning methods.

As with digitalization, the challenge to design and implement a just transition reveals weaknesses of skills anticipation systems, and a lack of capacity to overcome the time-lag between identifying new skills and integrating them into curricula and qualifications, and to embed skills adjustment processes in processes of economic change.

Insights from more recent research: the South Africa energy skills road map

Three recent studies highlight challenges of thinking about ‘green skills’ in the African context. One examined skill needs to support energy transitions: including the introduction of renewable energy, regional grid integration and energy efficiency initiatives. It was undertaken in six South African Development Community (SADC) countries (REAL Centre, 2022). The study found little planning for skills, little coordination, and little focus on regional grid integration or energy efficiency. In terms of regional grid integration, it is not an immediate skills priority because of political dynamics. The main political focus is on renewables rather than supporting public infrastructure investments and technology change. The transition is being driven by industry and international partners, with African countries positioned mainly as users. At community level, there are small interventions but there is no national plan to look at energy at community levels in any of the countries.

Two other studies, one looking at key trends in South Africa only (SANEA, 2023), and one looking at renewable energy in Mauritius and circular economies in the Seychelles, found similar trends (REAL Centre, 2023).

Across the three studies, a key insight is that to the extent to which there is a focus on skills, it is on specific technical skills, and not about transitioning systems. There is a conflation of skills required for jobs (the technical knowledge needed by a technician for a specific job) and the need to understand how the green transition is expected to support social and environmental justice. Finally, there is insufficient analysis of which jobs are changing and how, versus where there will be new jobs. The emphasis tends often to be on the latter, but there is also substantial need for the former. Too often the focus is on introducing new qualifications rather than examining and changing existing curricula.

Are economies in Africa transitioning to a greener version leading to new jobs?

Economies and labour markets show limited transition: most jobs and work opportunities are not long-term, nor do they meet the definition of ‘decent’ in ILO terms³, nor are they ‘green’. This is concerning because a drastically changing climate and temperature increases in the context of poverty and a high dependence on the exploitation of natural resources for livelihoods necessitate substantial change in African economies (Afful-Koomson, 2012). Understanding how and where change can be best initiated in African economies characterized by high levels of informality with a low propensity for large public sector investment is challenging.

Mwaura and Glover (2021) argue that target sectors for green jobs in low- and middle-income countries would be quite different from those that would be appropriate in wealthy countries. In the developed world, the emphasis is on decarbonization and reductions in material consumption, but African nations should have leeway to emphasize job creation and increases in material consumption to alleviate poverty. How to square this circle is little debated.

Some examples of green labour market policies which have had a positive impact are presented in a 2021 ILO report. In Zambia, two years into the implementation of its Green Jobs Programme, there was a reported increase in the quality of 2,018 existing jobs, as well as the creation of 2,660 green jobs. Kenya and Uganda, through their Green Entrepreneurship Development Programme, have created green enterprises that produce green goods and services (ILO, 2021).

Megwai, Njie, and Richards (2017) also documented successes in the green economic strategies and policies of Kenya and Ethiopia. In Kenya, energy, tourism, agriculture, transport, water, waste and ICT were the target sectors, resulting in additional income and employment as well as diversifying electricity generating sources. In Ethiopia, the target sectors were agriculture, forestry, electrical power, transport, building and industry. Reported results included increased efficiency of energy production, reduction in deforestation rates and an increase in sustainable forest management practices. In South Africa, green economy investments have shown to have had a positive impact on reducing carbon emissions, lowering fossil-fuel dependence, and contributing to the use of natural resources in a sustainable manner (Musango, Brent and Bassi, 2014).

Other sustainability responses in, for example, Rwanda, South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria, focused on shifting technologies within large-scale industry (e.g. Renewable Energy Technology and Green Hydrogen Economy). These responses tended to exclude local stakeholders and communities and had fewer local economic benefits.

How economies in Africa can make a green and just transition where governments are not positioned to lead large-scale public infrastructure investments (including in TVET systems to meet ‘green’ industrial skills needs) is little researched.

Moving the green transition forward, faster with new skills

Whilst there is agreement from policy-makers on the need for education and training systems to support the green transition across the educational landscape, there is little analysis on how to define and promote skills for different ‘green’ work opportunities at different skills levels. Neither is there robust analysis of how current occupations are changing to understand changing intermediate skills needs (Ramsarup, 2019). Even less exists on defining what every citizen should know and understand to be a ‘green’ citizen.

Research and analysis are needed to understand what needs to be done at local/community level, and at national and international level to collect data, analyze, discuss and propose what is required by policy-makers, industry and the TVET community to meet the multiple challenges of adapting to, and mitigating for, environmental change, risks and new technologies within the African context. Research is required to share knowledge, pilot new approaches, and evaluate what works.

Specifically in relation to TVET, the BILT Africa Scoping Survey pointed to a need for a more integrated and iterative notion of skills planning, with more direct and ongoing engagement with economic actors, as discussed in Insights into employer engagement in skills anticipation in African TVET systems. What is a priority is working out what is suitable in the African context to strengthen TVET institutions to be active participants in research, analysis and discussion and where new ideas can emerge and be tested.

Finally, more thought needs to go into the broader context of what a ‘just’ green transition for African economies looks like. This includes thinking about the process of the transition: who is leading change; who is involved; and how will people be affected.