The Womandla Foundation, a South African non-profit focused on upskilling women and youth, has launched Phase Two of the Reskilling Revolution Africa initiative in South Africa in partnership with the International Association of Volunteer Effort (IAVE) and IBM SkillsBuild.

This new phase seeks to equip young people and women with the digital, professional and entrepreneurial capabilities needed to remain competitive as automation, artificial intelligence and new technologies continue to reshape entry‑level work across the continent. IAVE, a global organisation dedicated to promoting volunteering for social impact, and IBM SkillsBuild, a free online learning platform offering certified digital skills training, are both key partners driving the initiative’s rollout.

At the programme’s launch on Thursday, John Matogo, IBM’s Corporate Social Responsibility Leader for the Middle East and Africa, emphasised the role digital skills play in economic mobility.
“At IBM, we believe that access to technology skills is a catalyst for inclusive economic growth,” he said.

Scaling a Continental Reskilling Effort

Endorsed by the African Union in 2023, Reskilling Revolution Africa began its pilot phase in late 2024 in Nigeria, Ethiopia, and South Africa, reaching roughly 30,000 young people. Participants register through community-based NGOs and complete curated IBM SkillsBuild pathways covering digital literacy, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, soft skills, entrepreneurship, and introductory technology concepts. Learners earn globally recognized digital credentials and gain hands‑on exposure through mentoring, volunteering initiatives, and community projects.

Phase Two: New Skills, Broader Access

The second phase, now officially rolling out in South Africa under the leadership of the Womandla Foundation, broadens its course catalogue, particularly in emerging areas such as AI, green skills, and digital innovation. Training cohorts typically run for 8–10 weeks, and include post‑training support designed to help youth turn their new credentials into employment, entrepreneurial ventures, or further studies.

South Africa’s youth unemployment rate for ages 15–24 remains alarmingly high at nearly 59%, among the worst globally. Although quantifying tech-driven job losses remains difficult, early signs suggest that certain workers,, are already feeling the impact of automation and business restructuring. Clear attribution is challenging: layoffs may stem from AI adoption, cost‑cutting, offshoring, or a mix of these forces.

International trends offer warnings. In the United States, white-collar automation layoffs surged in 2025, and analysts expect the pattern to spread globally. As a result, sectors such as South Africa’s business-process outsourcing (BPO) and call-centre industries, where automation is advancing rapidly, face mounting pressure to adapt.

Building Adaptive Learning Ecosystems

For Sam Gqomo, founder of the Womandla Foundation, predicting job‑loss numbers is less important than building agile, responsive learning systems.

“We should pay less attention to predicting job loss numbers and focus more on building adaptive learning ecosystems fast enough to keep up with technological change,” she said.

Gqomo noted that the foundation now offers 36 free learning pathways across entrepreneurship, STEM fields, and creative industries, ranging from foundational to advanced levels.

Samuel Turay, Africa Senior Program Manager at IAVE, highlighted the power of combining skills development with volunteer-driven social impact.
“This collaboration demonstrates what becomes possible when technology, volunteering and purpose-driven partnerships align. Together, we are creating practical pathways that empower people to participate meaningfully in the economy,” he said.

AI as a Turning Point—Not a Threat

Khadija Richards, Womandla’s Head of Impact, described the AI transition as a structural shift rather than an existential threat for Africa’s workforce.

“Africa is the youngest continent in the world,” she said. “Young people are already digitally adaptive, entrepreneurial and comfortable navigating change. When AI moves quickly, youth are often the first to experiment with it.”

Richards argued that automation will primarily transform, rather than eliminate, roles in sectors reliant on repetitive tasks, including administration, retail operations, and routine data handling.

At the same time, new layers of digitally enabled employment are emerging:

AI oversight and optimisation

Customer experience design

Digital operations management

Tech-enabled supply chain roles

Platform-based entrepreneurship

Rethinking Work for a New Generation

Gqomo noted that young South Africans are increasingly imagining careers as multi‑layered portfolios rather than single permanent jobs.

“A lot of young people want a career portfolio—a job, a side hustle, a gig, a family business. Our current education infrastructure is not friendly to that,” she said.

A recurring theme across the initiative is the misalignment between education and technological change. Policy and institutional cycles evolve over years, whereas AI evolves in months.

“The key gap is alignment, not ability,” Richards said. “African youth are creative, resilient and adaptive. The system must ensure early AI fluency, applied learning, and recognition of alternative credentials.”

Skills Are Growing—But Systems Must Catch Up

Short-tech training programmes and alternative credentials are still undervalued in many hiring systems, making it difficult for self-taught or informally trained youth to progress, even as employers increasingly seek exactly those skills.

Closing this gap requires:

Strengthened digital infrastructure and connectivity

Investment in devices and inclusive STEM pathways

A shift toward skills-based hiring

Recognition of non-traditional learning credentials

A Defining Choice for South Africa

South Africa now faces a structural crossroads common to many emerging economies: whether automation will widen inequality or serve as a catalyst for inclusive productivity growth.

Without targeted intervention, AI adoption may concentrate opportunity among already-connected urban youth while displacing routine workers. But with the right policies, rural digital hubs, broadband expansion, inclusive training pipelines, and skills-based hiring incentives, technology could broaden participation instead of narrowing it.

“Africa’s youth are not behind the AI curve,” Richards said. “The real question is whether systems will empower youth to shape the new jobs.”

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