Nepoworx and the Manufacturing, Engineering and Related Services SETA (MerSETA) have joined forces to implement a nationwide green skills capacity-building programme.
This comes amid rising demand to educate and upskill young people with future-relevant skills, including solar skills, amid the country’s energy crisis.
SA’s youth unemployment rate is 63.9% for those aged 15-24 and 42.1% for those aged 25-34, higher than the national average of 34.5%. Additionally, only 35% of youth who seek formal employment opportunities are able to be absorbed into sustainable job opportunities.
According to a statement, Nepoworx and MerSETA have agreed to implement the green skills capacity-building programme, which targets unemployed youth to be trained as solar photovoltaic (PV) service technicians.
The objective is to upskill youth to potentially be employed either at photovoltaic farms or roof-top solar PV installations.
Upon completion of the programme, qualified participants will be able to plan, design and install a PV system, and learn about the operation and maintenance of such a system to ensure its continued operation, notes the statement.
“With a staggering youth unemployment rate of 63.9% and energy supply shortages that are constraining economic growth, we believe the programme will be a catalyst towards alleviating these challenges,” says Nepoworx CEO Nonjabulo Sokhela.
“As an institution we advocate for a just transition that is focused on social inclusion and the creation of decent work and quality jobs.”
Nepoworx is a solar training institution that provides accredited PV greencard, solar courses, solar PV training, solar panel installation courses and solar PV systems, to name a few.
An entity of the Department of Higher Education and Training, MerSETA was established to promote skills development in terms of the Skills Development Act of 1998, encompassing manufacturing, engineering and related services.
The organisations believe the green skills programme is important towards building the required solar PV skills capacity that’s critical to implement SA’s plans to accelerate the increase in generation capacity, as announced by president Cyril Ramaphosa.
In his recent pronouncement about the nation’s energy crisis, Ramaphosa noted the importance of renewable energy in plugging SA’s energy shortfall, urging households and businesses to invest in solar energy.
The training programme will encompass knowledge, practical and work experience components, and participants will gain the requisite exposure needed to qualify as solar PV technicians, assisting them in securing employment in the renewable energy sector, notes the statement.
“We call upon renewable energy independent power producers, advisory companies, engineering procurement and construction companies, operations and maintenance companies and solar photovoltaic installation companies to collaborate with us in providing work exposure to the learners enrolled into the programme.
“The programme will unlock job opportunities in the renewable energy sector. Nepoworx’s mission is to develop green skills that are required to contribute towards the implementation of renewable energy targets under the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producers Programme and the private sector-led embedded generation renewable energy projects,” concludes Sokhela.
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