About the REAL Centre

The REAL Centre is an interdisciplinary research centre based in the School of Education at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. The REAL Centre conducts cutting-edge research on education and work, offers graduate teaching programmes, and provides support to policymakers and regulatory institutions.

The REAL Centre has developed a strong reputation as a leading academic entity, and national and international resource. Our research encompasses South Africa, Africa, and cross-country international studies.

The REAL Centre is unique internationally in its focus on understanding the relationship between education and work as part of the broader ecosystem of a country’s social and economic development trajectory, in the context of the global climate crisis and a changing world of work. There is currently a massive gap in understanding the relationship between skill formation, labour markets, and industrialization trajectories in the developing world in the context of efforts to create a just transition. Solutions from the developed world continue to fail.

We aim to provide insights for policymakers to help solve some of the developing world’s greatest challenges of youth unemployment and the need for a just transition.