Reskilling whom, exactly? Africa’s invisible workers in the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs report

Behind the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs 2025 optimism lies a hard question: who, in Africa and South Africa, is actually being reskilled – and who is simply left behind?

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I write about various issues of interest to me that I want to bring to the reader’s attention. While my main work is in Artificial Intelligence and technology, I also cover areas around politics, education, and the future of our children.

The 2025 Future of Jobs report from the World Economic Forum (WEF) paints a familiar picture: waves of disruption from AI, automation and the green transition, but a broadly hopeful story if we can just reskill fast enough. The language is upbeat and tidy. Millions of workers need “skills upgrades”, employers plan “learning programmes”, and new roles in data, AI and sustainability will emerge. What worries me is not the ambition, but the assumptions hidden underneath. In much of the developing world, and especially in South Africa, the idea that we can simply train our way out of this upheaval ignores the lived reality of many workers who were never given a fair start.

CONTEXT AND BACKGROUND

The WEF report suggests that a large share of workers globally will need significant retraining in the coming years, and that employers expect to invest heavily in new skills. At the same time, it quietly acknowledges that a meaningful minority of roles and workers are effectively not considered viable for reskilling. That distinction may be uncomfortable in advanced economies; in the Global South, it is explosive. We already live with high structural unemployment, fragile schooling systems and deep digital inequality.

Africa is regularly described as a “future talent powerhouse”, with its young population and growing cities. South Africa, on paper, has the institutions to turn this into an advantage: universities, colleges, sector education bodies and corporate academies. But beneath the policy documents lies a harsher reality. Many young people leave school without solid literacy or numeracy. Millions of adults work informally, lack reliable internet access and juggle survival-level responsibilities. For them, “lifelong learning” is not a branded online platform; it is a luxury they cannot afford.

INSIGHT AND ANALYSIS

When leaders talk about reskilling, they rarely answer the obvious question: reskilling whom, exactly? A small, already advantaged slice of the workforce is perfectly positioned for the new AI economy. They have degrees, English proficiency, devices, data, and employers willing to invest in them. They will attend the bootcamps, complete the certificates and appear in the success stories. But the warehouse picker, the call-centre agent on a short-term contract, the older clerk in a rural office – they often exist outside these plans, even while their roles are first in line for automation.

Corporate “upskilling strategies” often translate into curated playlists of online courses and internal memos urging staff to take ownership of their careers. Performance targets do not soften, working hours do not shrink, and very little protected learning time is created. Unsurprisingly, the people who benefit most are the ones who were already close to the new roles. The language of reskilling becomes a polite way of saying to everyone else: if you cannot keep up, it is your fault, not ours, and certainly not the system’s.

The World Economic Forum is not wrong to highlight AI, data and green skills as critical. Where I believe the narrative fails the Global South is in glossing over how far many workers must travel to reach that starting line. You cannot jump from a weak basic education and limited digital exposure straight into advanced technical roles by watching a few videos on your phone. Without serious investment in foundational education, adult basic skills and realistic training pathways, “reskilling” remains an aspiration, not a plan.

IMPLICATIONS

For policymakers in Africa, the first step is honesty. We need to distinguish clearly between workers who can realistically transition into complex new roles with support, and those for whom the priority must be income security, basic education and more modest, but dignified, shifts in work. That is not about writing people off; it is about refusing to pretend that the same toolkit fits everyone. Social protection, public adult education and investment in early childhood and school quality are just as important to the future of jobs as shiny AI labs.

For business leaders, it means moving beyond slogans and treating learning as work, not a hobby. If companies are serious about reskilling, they must fund time for training, redesign roles so that people can gradually take on more complex tasks, and create “bridge jobs” where AI tools extend what existing workers can do instead of replacing them outright. In South Africa, partnerships between employers, colleges and community organisations could support local, context-aware pathways, instead of copy-pasting models from Silicon Valley.

CLOSING TAKEAWAY

The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs report invites us to imagine a world where technology disruption is matched by a great wave of human learning. It is an attractive vision, and we should hold on to its possibilities. But if we ignore who is actually able to ride that wave, we risk deepening the very inequalities we claim to solve. The real test for governments and companies in South Africa and across Africa is whether we can design transitions that include those who started furthest behind. Our children will not only ask what new jobs AI created; they will ask who we chose to invest in, and who we quietly left out of the future.

Author Bio: Johan Steyn is a prominent AI thought leader, speaker, and author with a deep understanding of artificial intelligence’s impact on business and society. He is passionate about ethical AI development and its role in shaping a better future. Find out more about Johan’s work at https://www.aiforbusiness.net