Womandla, IBM and IAVE convey reskilling program to South Africa

Womandla Basis, a South African upskilling non-profit, has partnered with the Worldwide Affiliation of Volunteer Effort and IBM SkillsBuild to launch Part Two of Reskilling Revolution Africa in South Africa.

The initiative goals to equip ladies and younger folks with future-ready expertise as automation continues to reshape entry-level work. The Worldwide Affiliation of Volunteer Effort is a world community that promotes volunteering for social change, whereas IBM SkillsBuild is a free digital studying platform.

“At IBM, we consider that entry to expertise expertise is a catalyst for inclusive financial progress,” John Matogo, company social duty chief for IBM Center East and Africa, mentioned on the launch on Thursday. 

Reskilling Revolution Africa, endorsed by the African Union in 2023, piloted its first part from late 2024 in Nigeria, Ethiopia and South Africa, reaching about 30,000 younger folks. 

Individuals enrol by native NGOs, full curated studying pathways on IBM SkillsBuild, spanning digital literacy, AI, cybersecurity, entrepreneurship and comfortable expertise, and earn globally recognised certificates. The mannequin combines self-paced on-line programs with mentorship, volunteering and group tasks to construct sensible expertise and employability.

Part Two, now being rolled out in South Africa by the Womandla Basis, expands course choices reminiscent of AI and inexperienced expertise. Cohorts run 8–10 weeks with mentoring and post-training assist to translate credentials into jobs, entrepreneurship or additional examine.

South Africa’s youth unemployment fee for ages 15–24 sits close to 59%, one of many highest globally. Whereas job losses in South Africa linked to AI and automation are nonetheless solely estimates, the fact is that some employees are being laid off, and freelancers are struggling to seek out new work. 

It’s tough to inform whether or not these retrenchments are pushed by AI, cost-cutting, or offshoring, since present research don’t clearly isolate the causes within the South African context. However within the US, white-collar automation layoffs surged in 2025, a pattern anticipated to diffuse globally and will quickly intensify South Africa’s employment challenges.

South Africa faces heightened danger in sectors reminiscent of enterprise‑course of outsourcing (BPO) and name centres, the place automation applied sciences are advancing shortly, however human labour nonetheless carries a lot of the workload. As these world traits take maintain, the nation is below rising stress to plan strategically, discovering methods to safeguard its workforce and put together for the disruptions forward.

“We must always pay much less consideration to predicting job loss numbers and focus extra on constructing adaptive studying ecosystems quick sufficient to maintain up with technological change,” Sam Gqomo, the founding father of Womandla Basis, mentioned. 

She mentioned the inspiration provides about 36 free studying paths in entrepreneurship, Science, Expertise, Engineering, and Arithmetic (STEM), and artistic industries, from newbie to superior. n

“This collaboration demonstrates what turns into doable when expertise, volunteering and purpose-driven partnerships align,” mentioned Samuel Turay, Africa Senior Program Supervisor from IAVE. “Collectively, we’re creating sensible pathways that empower folks to take part meaningfully within the financial system.”

Khadija Richards, head of influence at Womandla, described the AI transition as much less of a menace than a structural turning level for Africa’s labour market.

“Africa is the youngest continent on this planet,” she mentioned. “ Younger persons are already digitally adaptive, entrepreneurial and comfy navigating change,” she mentioned. “When AI strikes shortly, youth are sometimes the primary to experiment with it.”

She mentioned automation will primarily remodel, not erase, sectors constructed on repetitive duties reminiscent of administration, retail operations, and routine information work. 

However new layers of employment are rising above them, together with AI supervision and optimisation, customer-experience design, digital operations administration, tech-enabled provide chains, and platform entrepreneurship.

“Automation just isn’t solely altering jobs; it’s altering how younger South Africans think about work itself. A number of younger folks desire a profession portfolio, a job, a aspect hustle, a gig, a household enterprise and the present training infrastructure just isn’t pleasant to that,” Gqomo added.

A recurring theme throughout the Reskilling Revolution initiative is misalignment: training and coverage cycles transfer in years, whereas AI functionality cycles transfer in months.

“The important thing hole is alignment, not potential,” Richards mentioned. “African youth are inventive, resilient and adaptive. The system should guarantee early AI fluency, utilized studying, and recognition of different credentials.”

Insurance policies are gradual to catch up, and this impacts jobs. Quick coaching applications and certificates are usually not taken significantly in lots of hiring techniques. That makes it more durable for younger individuals who taught themselves or discovered informally to maneuver up, although employers are asking for precisely these expertise.

However that upside will depend on infrastructure and coverage catching up: connectivity entry, units, inclusive STEM pipelines, and recognition of non-traditional studying pathways.

South Africa now faces a structural selection acquainted throughout rising economies: whether or not automation widens inequality or catalyses productiveness progress.

With out intervention, AI adoption might focus alternative amongst already-connected city youth whereas displacing routine employees. With focused coverage, rural digital hubs, broadband enlargement, and skills-based hiring incentives, the identical applied sciences might develop participation.

“Africa’s youth are usually not behind the AI curve,” Richards mentioned. “The actual query is whether or not techniques will empower youth to form the brand new jobs.”