Addressing skills shortages in the renewable energy sector

Press release

The renewable energy sector in South Africa is making strides in providing an alternative energy source for the country’s electricity demand. The sector does however have a challenge to overcome, and that is the shortage of required skills in the industry. Finding a solution to this could mean providing numerous jobs to those wishing to follow a career in renewable energy.

While the renewable energy sector already provides thousands of jobs in South Africa, many more are available; however, the skills required for these jobs are either in short supply or the skills and qualifications required are available, but experience in the renewables industry is lacking. Also, there is a general shortage of skills in the science, engineering, math’s and technology (STEM) fields in South Africa.

STEM students needed

The industry needs electrical engineers, operations and maintenance managers and mechanical technicians. Skills in manufacturing, assembly and installation are also needed. Since renewable energy plants are also businesses, they require skills in sales, marketing, finance and general business operations as well.

With this in mind, how should we be educating young people about the opportunities available and the qualifications that are required? According to Asante Phiri, Head of O&M Southern Africa at Enel Green Power South Africa (EGP RSA), we need to encourage the youth to take up careers in STEM-related fields.

He says that students are still shying away from these subjects due to a perception that they’re difficult subjects. He suggests that school outreach programmes would help the youth understand that, although degrees in these fields are challenging, they can be achieved, and are necessary to follow careers in renewable energy and to take up the many employment opportunities available.

Helping the youth become employable

Lizeka Dlepu (picture above), Head of Sustainability Southern Africa at EGP RSA, explains that the company is committed to encouraging young people to enter the renewable energy industry. Enel exposes learners from the communities in which it operates to the operations at the company’s plants. These learners see for themselves how the sites operate and how energy is produced.

The company has also discovered that some schools in its host communities do not offer maths and science as subjects. Learners can take what is known as Maths Literacy, but this will not equip them to enter tertiary institutions to study engineering-related subjects. In answer to this problem, EGP RSA provides schools in these communities with maths and science teachers, so that learners will be able to study towards STEM careers at tertiary level.

EGP RSA also offers bursaries to university students and provides financial support to young learners from FET colleges who are studying N3, N4 and N5 levels in mechanical or electrical engineering. This is so that they may be equipped to take up careers in these fields and be able to apply for work opportunities at Enel’s renewable energy plants.

Students who have studied to become artisans, for example technicians, electricians, mechanical fitters, and others, as well as those who have studied engineering as a science, are eligible to work at renewable energy plants. The sector also needs business-related skills, so students with qualifications in sales and marketing, finance, legal services, and so on, can apply for work opportunities in the business areas of renewable energy.

To help mitigate the high unemployment rate, EGP RSA’s bursaries have funded over 40 students across the country, with others already having graduated, and over 30 in the pipeline. On the technical side, the company has trained local youths as wind turbine technicians and in basic rigging in order to increase the pool of young people able to enter the workforce   within its host communities.

EGP RSA has also begun funding learners at entry level. Learners who don’t have a matric but are interested in engineering, can apply to Enel’s community development program, which could fund them at N3 level.

Another project that EGP RSA has initiated is the funding of disadvantaged learners by taking them out of township schools and placing them in private schools. These learners most often live in informal dwellings and are raised by their grandmothers who are dependent on a government pension. These are learners that have shown great potential, and if not assisted, could fall by the wayside. EGP RSA funds their tuition, uniforms, books, laptops, transport and daily lunches to give them an opportunity to reach their potential and go on to study at university.

Facilitating skills development

On the skills development side, EGP RSA has also started a driving school programme in the hope that, once trained, the drivers can gain employment either on the company’s sites or elsewhere in the country.

As part of the company’s commitment to the Circular Economy, it is also funding locals to study at furniture-making and carpentry institutions, so that they can make furniture from wooden pallets and other waste/recyclable materials. This will open up employment and self-employment opportunities.

The Renewable Energy Solutions for Africa (RES4Africa) foundation has instituted a programme called the Reskilling Lab, which EGP RSA is participating in together with other companies. The aim of the programme is to address one of the big challenges faced by the energy sector. South Africa has numerous coal-fired power stations and this is one of the contributors to employment within the mining industry. The problem is, if the country changes its energy mix by incorporating a larger percentage of renewable energy, what happens to the employees that are working within the coal sector and within the value chain in the coal power plants?

The Reskilling Lab aims to address this by reskilling employees from the coal-based power plants value chain to be able to take up jobs within the renewable energy sector and within the new value chain for the renewable energy industry. One of its objectives is to build training platforms that address the current skills gap between current skills and what is needed in the renewable energy industry.

The Reskilling Lab also looks at creating bases to make reskilling an asset for local communities, making sure that they’re financially sustainable and also potentially scalable. EGP RSA is passionate about this and believes that the Reskilling Lab needs to happen in order to facilitate a fair energy transition.

While a skills gap exists in the country and in the renewable energy sector, much is being done to address this. With financial aid, educational support, and skills development programmes constantly being instituted, it is hopeful that the skills gap will continue to shrink, and that new job opportunities will become available to the many unemployed in the country.

Relevant Agribook pages include “Careers and employment in agriculture” [The page includes careers which directly affect agriculture – Ed.] and “Renewable and Alternative Energy“.