Dr Presha Ramsarup is the Director of the Centre for Researching Education & Labour at the University of Witwatersrand. In addition, she is also a senior research associate at the Environmental Learning Research Centre at Rhodes University, honorary associate professor at the University of Nottingham, and president of the Environmental Education Association of Southern Africa.
Presha's PhD was one of the first substantive studies on green skills in the South African skills system. In this study she developed a multilevelled approach to skills transitioning for critical environmental skills in South Africa, including environmental engineers. Her study opened up a laminated systems perspective on skills for Just Transitioning. Since then, she was a co-coordinator of the DBSA Green Skills Research programme. Currently she is producing leading research on skills development for the Just Energy Transition, with her most recent work informing the South African Presidency and the Just Energy Transition Implementation Plan.
Presha explains that SA’s just transition requires an educational plan, which will entail new and different models for skills development. In an interview with Business Day, Presha argues for new and different models for skills development to support the skills response to a just transition. Included in the requirements, she motivates for a co-ordinating hub, and the approach from local level upwards. Whereas skills development has traditionally taken a macro view, the just transition process requires an approach that interrogates and expands local economies so as to play a transformative role in local communities.
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