Skills development, and the renewable energy sector’s worker needs, are misaligned in South Africa

That South Africa, in general, and the renewable-energy sector in particular, need skills development, is a truism. But the requirements of the renewable-energy industry and the output of skills development institutions and programmes are significantly out of alignment. But not in the way you might think. The country is currently producing too many skilled renewable-energy workers, compared with the industry’s actual needs.

This was made clear during a panel discussion at the Windaba 2024 conference, at the Cape Town International Convention Centre.

Presidential Climate Commission employment strategy head Devan Pillay pointed out that, across the entire economy, over the past ten or so years the government and business together had spent about R20-billion on skills development. Skills development, however, depended on understanding the demand, including long-term demand. Thus, two or three years ago, the training of solar panel installers had been prioritised, with the result that today there was an oversupply of these specialists, while other key sectors still lacked sufficient skilled workers.

Energy and Water Sector Education and Training Authority CEO Mpho Mookapele affirmed that there was a need to accept that there were skills that were needed now, but that long-term planning was needed to develop the skills that were required for the future. There was indeed now an oversupply of solar technicians; people had the skills, but there were no jobs available. The country and sector needed a workforce with skills that could be applied across wider industry. For example, what skills did solar technicians have that could be used in other industries? “Some renewable energy jobs are not long-term jobs,” she warned.

Pillay observed that renewable-energy projects involved a planning phase, a construction phase, and a post-construction (operation and maintenance) phase. The operation and maintenance phase would not require the number of workers that the planning and especially construction phases needed.

Nordex Energy South Africa head of people and culture Zelrese Brair confirmed that the misalignment between skills training programmes, and the actual industrial demand for those skills, also applied to the wind energy sector. (Germany-domiciled Nordex Energy is an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) of onshore wind turbines.) She highlighted that, from the perspective of Nordex, as an OEM, service technicians were needed. But, as for the other wind power specialists, OEMs would need only a few of each. “An engineer is an engineer,” she noted. “A service tech is a service tech.” But, to work in the wind power sector, they needed to understand the requirements of the sector.

Mookapele put the spotlight on a related current problem. Students at technical vocational education and training colleges were successfully completing the theoretical phases of their training, but they could not graduate. This was because private-sector companies simply did not have the capacity to take them for their in-practice training. “That’s a sad reality.”