Shaping Learning Pathways in a Transitioning Sector: A Focus on Solar Jobs in South Africa

ABSTRACT The solar energy sector plays a critical role in South Africa's energy transition, especially as it is one of the country's fastest‐growing renewable energy sectors. It is envisaged that this growing sector will create numerous jobs in the short‐, medium‐, and long‐term for intermediate‐level skills development and will serve as an important access point for youth into the green economy. Although there is a strong aspirational intent for youth employment in the solar sector, due to the sector's rapid fragmented emergence and newness, little is known about the transitioning experiences of entrants, the nature of the available pathways, and the connections between education and work. In this paper, we analyse the learning and work transitioning of individuals in the solar sector, the nature of the occupational labour market, and the emerging provisioning landscape. As a newly emerging, rapidly evolving field of practice, education and work systems must pay attention to experiences of transitions, so we build an understanding of the factors that enable and constrain access to learning opportunities and learning pathways in green sectors, and how these emerge and come to be constituted. We use learning pathway stories of solar employees to understand the dynamics of learning and work transitions, and desktop analysis of the educational and occupational systems that support the solar sector, to help us explore the complexities associated with learning pathway construction, articulation, and efficacy in systems of educational provisioning within a growing green sector. This helps us to raise systemic disjunctures and offers possibilities to enhance inclusive learning pathways for the solar sector. In a context where there is limited empirical evidence of youth experiences in the solar sector, this study hence contributes to highlighting some critical issues that need attention to enable the creation of seamless transitions into green jobs especially in emerging sectors. It illuminates the institutional procedures essential for ensuring efficient and operational systems of work and learning for the solar sector and the broader low‐carbon transition.