Young people are South Africa’s most important source of human capital. By 2030, an estimated 230 million jobs will be created in all of Africa with many in the digital economy. It’s time for this incoming generation of future leaders to rise up and actively contribute to their country’s digital transformation and long-term development.

The South Africa National Future and Digital Skills Strategy (2021-2025) has made it a priority to boost the employability of young women and men specifically through digital skills training. To accelerate this initiative, the International Labour Organization (ILO) launched the South Africa Skills Innovation Challenge Call targeted at TVET institutions, public, private, and non-profit training providers in South Africa focusing on digital skills development.

After a competitive selection process, four training institutions were awarded cash prizes and granted tailored capacity development interventions. Funded by the Government of Flanders, the International Training Centre of the ILO (ITCILO) and ILO delivered the Digital Skills Development for Youth Not in Education, Employment, or Training (NEET) project in South Africa. The project’s story follows, featuring past lowlights, current spotlights, and future sunlight.

• Youth resilience, reenvisioned: The challenges and opportunities youth face in South Africa visualized through key statistics and researched data.
• We are hiring! A glimpse at how the digital transformation impacts the world of work and which skills are needed to confront the future.
• Drumming and training: Beats, rhythms, and harmonies that emerged from various learning events online, in Italy, and throughout South Africa.
• South African superheroes: A meet and greet with the humans behind the winning training institutions, but with a supersonic, powerful twist…
• Each one teach one: Voices from the visionaries, trailblazers, and changemakers that spearhead South Africa’s digital revolution, leaving no one behind.

We wrote this collective story together, not as a traditional project report. We think these shared human-centered micro-narratives are important to capture the essence of human complexity. This collection, more than a mere compilation, serves as an ethnographic lens, magnifying the intricate interplay of social norms, values, and behaviours. We hope you can empathize with the different stories, highlighting different individuals, diverse backgrounds, and perspectives. It’s not a finished story, we hope it inspires people around the world to join us and write new stories that generate impact and change.