10 minute read
ENVIRONMENT
GREEN THINKING FOR A GREEN FUTURE
“Green jobs” and a “green economy” sound like they are extreme and can be misleading, but they play a vital role in helping to make economies and communities more sustainable, reports TREVOR CRIGHTON
When talking about green jobs, the “green” should be placed in inverted commas, says Dr Nicola Jenkin of Pinpoint Sustainability. Why? “Because although ‘green’ comes with stereotypes of a conservation or renewable energy focus, it’s important that we start to consider that all jobs can have a green element if we are to build a sustainable, circular economy that benefits everyone,” she says.
“A green job doesn’t mean you have to work in a particular field, but rather that you have an understanding of how your role could incorporate the green economy or how your skills could be brought to bear in furthering green causes.
“A ‘green economy’ isn’t one that centres on killing off the internal combustion engine and going vegan, but rather about creating a society and economy that is just and decent. A green economy creates sustainable livelihoods and is environmentally and socially beneficial, and it creates paid permanent jobs in new industries or existing ones that have become more sustainable,” says Jenkin. “It’s a shift away from nonrenewable activities and towards understanding how the system can work better.”
Jenkin says that this economy needs more people across the board – lawyers with an understanding of green legislation, engineers looking at new technologies for construction, people looking at ways to reduce waste or design new products that have less of an environmental impact, teachers who can educate the next generation in new ways of thinking about sustainability, leaders to institute strategic insight, planning and risk mitigation, and more.
Martin Rohleder Dr Nicola Jenkin
GREEN SKILLS, GREEN TECHNOLOGY
“We need to look at ‘green thinking’ as a job skill, across the board,” says Jenkin. “Understanding how our jobs, skills and capabilities contribute to the creation of a circular economy can help us transition to a greener future.”
She says that while many people see the transition to a greener economy as a “job loss story”, the opposite is true. “It’s about reskilling, not losing jobs. The green economy is opening up opportunities for workers to apply their skills to new areas – such as coal miners transitioning to solar panel technicians – and there’s plenty of scope to move along with the new technology.”
The Atlantis Special Economic Zone (ASEZ) is a zone in the Atlantis industrial area to the north of Cape Town dedicated to the manufacturing and provision of services in the green technology space. It also undertakes training in “Greentech”, particularly among the youth, where the focus is on training in water treatment, waste management and renewable energy. Ursula Wellmann, ASEZ Community, Skills and Enterprise Development Project specialist, says that the majority of courses run through the ASEZ are fully accredited and recognised by both the Sector Education and Training Authority (SETA) and the Quality Council for Trades and Occupations (QCTO).
The ASEZ water treatment programme gives participants the technical and theoretical skills needed to work in a water treatment facility. Similarly, waste management training provides the participants with technical capabilities to work at a waste management facility. The training of renewable energy workshop assistants includes the basics of equipment use and renewable energy and electricity, combined with practical training – mounting of solar PV systems on various roofs.
“The courses are designed to address the skills gaps and any demands that investors might have, based on various studies over the recent years. Accordingly, the courses focus on green skills development and technical training. Leveraging partnerships and the collaborative efforts of various levels of government in support of the same aim, skills and enterprise development in Atlantis has required innovative approaches,” concludes Jenkin.
– DR NICOLA JENKIN
WORKING WASTE
“Working with new green technology on the African continent can raise questions about available skillsets to operate the system successfully and long-term. When installing a Waste Transformer – a product that converts organic waste streams into energy and transforms other waste into new products – on-the-job training in operating the system will be given to the local operator and the collection staff. Our Business in a Box programme provides local entrepreneur access to training, legal advice and support to successfully run their transformer,” says Martin Rohleder, sales director: The Waste Transformers.
Manual sorting table
GREENTECH DEVELOPMENT
IN ATLANTIS
Investment, integration and collaboration will boost Atlantis’ local economic development and uplift the community.
The Atlantis Special Economic Zone (ASEZ) along the Cape Province’s West Coast, was established in 2019 to capitalise on the province’s existing renewable energy and green technology sector and to draw on the area’s long manufacturing past and its abundance of technical skills within the local community. This economic zone aims to attract investment to boost and grow the regional economy and unlock further Greentech development as well as employment and skills development and transfer.
Managed by the Atlantis Special Economic Zone Company (ASEZ Co), ASEZ is passionate about finding sustainable solutions, uplifting the community and providing skills training. It seeks to equip the local community with skills and capabilities that are in demand, ensuring that investors establishing in the area are met with readily available skills and have no need to seek these skills elsewhere.
The past 10 to 15 years have seen industries in Atlantis, such as textiles and fabrics and heavy metal manufacturing decline. However, recent years have brought about a resurgence in aluminium fabrication, which can be linked to other Greentech products ASEZ Co aims to fill positions in this sector from the local community through its skills development programmes.
FOCUS ON SOCIAL INCLUSION AND SKILLS DEVELOPMENT
ASEZ is supported by local, provincial and national government partners – City of Cape Town, Western Cape Government and the Department of Trade Industry and Competition – and leverages these partnerships to contribute to its overall skills development wand community involvement initiatives.
Social inclusion is one of the cornerstones of the green economy, accordingly, contained in the definition by the United Nations Environment Programme. This element is at the heart of the ASEZ Co’s work in community integration. A dedicated enterprise development team grows relationships and drives community development programmes that translate into genuine benefits. It does this by harnessing local insights and findings from various skills audits and reports, then crafting solutions that address the gaps and improve existing programmes, all aimed at providing support to both the local communities and the businesses operating in this area.
The investment into community initiatives is also aligned to many of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), collectively aiming to provide a more sustainable future for Atlantis. Modern investors often consider such factors when making decisions about investment locations. The need for businesses to benefit the communities and families they impact, not just from a product and consumer perspective, but from a placemaking perspective, is at the heart of the “shared value” concept. The work in skills development
PRINCIPLES OF THE ATLANTIS COMMUNITY, SKILLS AND ENTERPRISE DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME
1. Enable and equip the local community and its businesses. 2. Identify skills required for investors, in turn, identifying opportunities for local small, medium and micro enterprises to enter supply chains. 3. Support the green economy’s overall development through increased knowledge and understanding of Greentech for businesses and community members alike.
directly addresses SDG 8 – Decent work and economic growth, SDG 9 – Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure, SDG 11 – Make cities safe and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable while actively encouraging participation in the economy and accessing employment opportunities.
SKILLS TRAINING FOR A GREEN ECONOMY
Since 2018, efforts to grow the availability of local skilled labour for green economy employers have been prioritised, together with equipping local small, medium and micro enterprises to render services for future Greentech investors. The enterprise development team focuses on driving the learn-by-doing methodology, allowing for quick, course-correcting responses and actions, should they be necessary. Annual updates together with further skills provide insights into the process.
This has led to a broadened scope of skills development priorities, now including development programmes from early childhood through to school-leaving age, to empower the youth with the expertise to access the job opportunities coming out of the ASEZ from the Atlantis, as well as creating a strong pipeline of Greentech skills.
Among these programmes are project management training to develop local expertise in project implementation, and waste management training – which has empowered
Atlantis youth to become waste management and water treatment practitioners and resulted in a community-led project to tackle waste and litter in the area. Dedicated efforts to support and upskill Atlantis youth with industry-relevant skills remain a priority. This is done through various initiatives, including the IkamvaYouth multi-year tutoring programme – successfully delivered since 2016 – and the Atlantis Renewable Energy Challenge, to name a few. The IkamvaYouth annual tutoring programme centres on tutoring. Volunteer tutors support learners in small groups to ensure that they understand their schoolwork. The programme also assists Grade 12 learners to apply for post-school opportunities (a minimum of three). This way, they are enrolled enrol in tertiary institutions or learnerships or have secured jobs for when they fi nish school. Over the years, the programme has had its fair share of operational challenges including impacts Ursula Wellmann, from crime and gangsterism ASEZ Community, Skills and Enterprise and transport diffi culties for Development Project specialist the tutors, who need to travel long distances between the universities from where they are recruited and Atlantis. The IkamvaYouth peer-to-peer learning model has been adapted to accommodate sessions on Saturdays only, with the branch team handling all support in the week. Despite these and the great operational challenges of shifting the whole support function online last year because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 matric cohort passed their Grade 12 exams with a 98 per cent pass rate.
Launched in 2016, the Atlantis Renewable Energy Challenge has stood the test of time and grown over the years. This annual competition originally attracted 20 high school learners to participate in the inaugural challenge. Since then, the science, technology, engineering and mathematics focused competition has encouraged high school and primary school learners alike to grapple with the topic of renewable energy. The 2019 competition added an art element to the contest, getting learners to share their visions of how renewable energy could impact the Atlantis community. The year saw a record number of participants, with 380 learners taking part. As much as this programme allows learners to engage with renewable energy in a fun way, it is aligned to the school curriculum Seeing the outputs driven by the learners’ enthusiasm and creativity fi lls one with hope. Hope not only for a better future for the Atlantis community, but a story of hope for South Africa’s youth, seeing opportunities in the green economy and leveraging this to forge future-proof careers for themselves, while ensuring we grow sustainably.
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021 573 7200 info@atlantissez.co.za www.atlantissez.com
