This report examines the current issues in South Africa pertaining to greening the economy with
special attention to skills requirements now and in the future. Current policy is found to be
inconsistent and market forces have tended to be more effective in driving change. However, going
forward there is potential for policy to direct significant structural changes. There is currently a
significant skills gap across all sectors and the development of a low carbon economy will
undoubtedly be hampered by this. Skill development structures are well developed but are led by
market demand, which may lead to green skills requirements either being overlooked, or being
provided outside of this framework. This in turn could be detrimental to national training
programmes. It is recommended that a cohesive approach is taken to green skills anticipation at a
national level which will ensure correct identification of needs, and strong implementation of the
pre-existing skills framework.
As outlined above and explained in detail in this report, South Africa in 2010 is only at the outset of
identifying the economic possibilities presented by greening the economy and moving towards a low
carbon pathway of development. Most of the responses have been very recent, particularly in terms
of policy. No policies exist as of March 2010 that specifically and exclusively address green jobs and
green skills. References to greening and green jobs have recently begun to emerge as a small aspect
of general policy framework development (for example IPAP2, Department of Trade & Industry,
Feb. 2010, and the Medium Term Strategic Framework, July 2009). However, these policies and
initiatives take a narrow view of the greening possibilities (for example, focusing largely on Solar
Water Heating (SWH), or as in the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP), the green aspects are
seen as a by-product of the main objective, which is employment creation). These draft policies are
mostly in development in 2009 and 2010. They are either not yet finalized, have not yet become
law, or are yet to be translated into implementation plans that will include skills identification and
training frameworks and planning.
The information in this report reflects the lack of coordination in training and development. Whilst
an effort has been made to gather information about green jobs, green skills and training
programmes, this can only be done where such programmes exist, and in many cases, as will be
seen, they do not.
