Leverage point two
Create Green Economy Pathways for Young People
We open a route into the green economy for young people who have few other options, from mentoring school-going children as conservation leaders to running short job-readiness courses, year-long learnerships and internships that increase their employability.
The problem we address
South Africa’s young people are locked out of work at a scale that is hard to overstate.
Two shortages sit alongside one another: young people without an entry point, and a green economy without the skilled people it requires.
For young people from low-income communities the obstacles accumulate: high dropout rates, limited means to fund further study, and few clear routes into a first job. Many have no idea that careers in the green economy exist at all.
The country simultaneously faces a shortage of trained conservation workers. Provincial reserves and protected areas are chronically under-resourced and understaffed, with too few qualified people to care for South Africa’s natural heritage.
How we solve it
We start by making the careers visible, through talks in schools and a long-term leadership project for a select group of learners. For young people who leave school unable to reach university, year-long learnerships and job-readiness training build the confidence and skills to find green jobs. For those who do reach university, a degree is not a job, so we run twelve-month internships for work-integrated learning students and graduates, where mentorship, workplace experience and networks become the link into a career.
Underneath all of it sit the relationships we hold with private landowners, nature reserves and conservation authorities. Those relationships are what open the door to a placement, and often to the job that follows.
Twenty-five years of this work has taught us that young people succeed when skills are matched with mentorship and people who understand their circumstances. We work across four focus areas.
Grow conservation leadership pathways
Seven years with the same learners, Grade 6 to matric, so a conservation career is something they have seen up close.
Expand accredited training
Salaried, accredited training delivered close to home across the Western and Northern Cape, ending in a qualification an employer recognises.
Strengthen workplace learning
Year-long learnerships and twelve-month internships on working reserves, where a graduate does the job before applying for one.
Build employer partnerships
Landowners, reserves and City departments who take a placement, and who sometimes hire the person who filled it.
This year in numbers
Financial year ended 28 February 2026.
From the project manager
Christine Botha
When I look at the young people who walk through our programme, I see where they come from. Most are carrying real weight: No income, families depending on them, and a school system that did not always set them up to succeed. Our job is not to pretend those challenges away. It is to meet young people where they are and give them a genuine chance.
What makes this work is that it is practical. A learner leaves us able to operate a chainsaw safely, handle a venomous snake, manage natural resources, and hold an accredited qualification that means something to an employer. The skill is only half of it. The other half is confidence. I have already watched learners who arrived unsure of themselves stand up at the end of a course and lead.
We want to close the support gap that causes students to drop out at the final hurdle, so that every young person who starts with us has a real shot at finishing.
If we keep building partnerships and keep listening to the young people we serve, the green economy will have the skilled, committed people it badly needs.
Priorities for the year ahead
Looking for a way in?
Learnerships, internships, work-integrated learning placements and short courses. If you are a school leaver, a graduate or a student who needs a placement year, start here.
The Conservation Leadership Project
Seven years, Grade 6 through Grade 12. Seven cohorts have completed all seven years, and thirteen of our twenty-five years have gone into it.
