As South Africa marks Energy Month, we will once again hear the familiar refrains: load-shedding persists, investment is needed and policy certainty remains elusive. This year’s Integrated Resource Plan, with its multiple scenarios and unclear direction, has added further uncertainty — both about our energy future and how we prepare for it.

Yet amid the policy and planning debates, one question gets asked too narrowly, if at all: Are we truly preparing our people — all of them — for this transition?

Even asking, “What skills do we need for a just energy transition?” might be the wrong starting point. The speed of technological change, shaped by the fourth industrial revolution and a shifting global economy, means that the skills themselves are constantly evolving. 

The real question we must grapple with is: “Are our education and training systems flexible and future-ready enough to respond to this transformation?” The just energy transition is not just about new technologies or job creation in green sectors. It is a structural transformation of our economy, society and everyday life — and that means skills development must be just as broad and integrated. 

We need skills and training not only for those who will work directly in renewable energy, electric vehicles and green hydrogen. We need to empower the average citizen to understand what these transitions mean for their daily lives, for the energy choices they make, for how their household budgets shift, for how communities organise around new infrastructure or adapt to new risks. 

The just transition is not something happening to people — it must happen with them.

South Africa has taken promising steps in this direction. Among other examples, the Just Energy Transition Skills for Employment Programme (JET SEP) is helping align training with demand in emerging sectors. The AWEaP Skills Development Programme is building leadership capacity among women in the energy sector. Proposed skills development zones will focus on priority areas like renewables, electric mobility and green hydrogen value chains.

These initiatives matter — but they are not yet enough.

Preparing the workforce for a just energy transition requires a fundamental rethink of how education and training are approached. Training programmes should respond to the actual demands of emerging industries, rather than rely on outdated content. 

Local context must shape learning — what works in one community may not work in another. Inclusivity is essential — women, youth, people with disabilities and historically disadvantaged groups must have equal access to opportunities. No single institution or sector can drive this change alone; collaboration between government, business, academia and civil society is essential. 

And, finally, planning must become more forward-looking, anticipating future skills needs instead of reacting to shortages after they arise.

Across the globe, the link between youth empowerment and the energy transition is gaining traction. The EU, for example, has explicitly placed youth at the centre of its energy transition agenda, launching initiatives like the Youth Energy Communication Campaign to build awareness, engagement and skills among younger generations. 

South Africa must follow suit. Our youth are not just future workers in green industries — they are future homeowners, policymakers, voters and innovators. If we don’t equip them now with the knowledge, tools and agency to shape a just energy transition, we risk designing a future that excludes the very people who will inherit it.

South Africa’s Just Energy Transition Framework rightly emphasises that this must be a “people-centred and place-based” process, grounded in inclusion, equity and participation. It acknowledges that education, retraining and public understanding are essential to avoid deepening existing inequalities. 

Yet, we cannot stop at acknowledging the need — we must deliver on it. A whole-of-society approach means embedding just transition thinking not only into technical training for new green industries, but also into schools, universities, public discourse and local government planning. 

The transition cannot be something only understood by experts — it must be lived and shaped by everyone.

While we speak of education, inclusion and local empowerment, our national energy planning tells a more complicated story. The recently released Integrated Resource Plan 2025, though broader in scenario design, introduces uncertainty about which path South Africa will actually follow. 

It misses an opportunity to connect technical energy planning with the human and educational dimensions of a just transition. Without clear explanations of how “best-cost” options weigh long-term risks — or how central planning aligns with the surge in private-sector and off-grid investment — we risk misaligning our training efforts with the realities of the energy market. 

As a result, universities, technical institutions, and other training providers, are left in a reactive position, trying to prepare graduates for an energy future even the government itself seems unsure about. This disconnect is not sustainable.

Against this backdrop, my recent awarding of the SARChI Chair on Just Energy Transition at the University of Pretoria — in collaboration with RWTH Aachen University in Germany — marks a timely opportunity to rethink how education supports the transition. 

This initiative opens a new phase in advancing interdisciplinary teaching, research and engagement that responds directly to the complexity of South Africa’s energy challenges. The focus is on breaking down silos, integrating diverse fields of expertise and fostering collaboration with communities and policymakers. While this is an important step, it represents only one part of the broader, systemic effort required across the country.

The skills required for a just transition are more than only learning to code or operate a new machine. They involve systems thinking, adaptive planning, social dialogue and the capacity to navigate complexity and uncertainty — at all levels of society. 

If we treat skills development as an afterthought, something to retrofit once policy decisions are made, we risk deepening inequality and leaving too many people behind. The transition will not be just by default. It must be built — person by person, institution by institution.

Energy Month and Youth Month should not merely be for reporting on progress. They should be a national checkpoint — are we building the human capabilities needed for the energy future we claim to want?

This article first appeared on the Mail and Guardian on 26 May 2025. Professor Roula Inglesi-Lotz heads the Energy Economics Research Unit and is the DSI-NRF Bilateral SARChI-Chair in Just Energy Transition, University of Pretoria.