South Africa unveils GBS Skills Strategy 2025–2030 to build a future-ready, globally competitive workforce

• Expands inclusive talent pathways by accelerating work-readiness, skills development, and job access for unemployed youth, ensuring South Africa continues to supply an agile, future-ready workforce for global service delivery.
• Preparing the workforce for AI-augmented roles is a must to ensure adaptability in a tech-driven global environment.

Johannesburg 27 November 2025 - BPESA recently announced the official launch of the GBS Skills Strategy 2025–2030, unveiled at the National GBS Conference in Durban, marking a major milestone for South Africa’s global business services sector.

The GBS Skills Strategy 2025–2030 sets out a unified national roadmap to build an agile, future-ready talent pipeline that can meet the evolving needs of global business services. Rooted in demand-led skilling, inclusive hiring, and digital transformation, the strategy strengthens South Africa’s competitiveness as an offshoring destination while supporting the GBS Masterplan’s ambition of creating 500,000 new net jobs by 2030.

Developed by BPESA, the industry body for South Africa’s GBS sector, in close collaboration with sector stakeholders, including international BPO operators, training providers, government, and social partners, the strategy identifies the priority skills, workforce development solutions, and system enablers required over the next five years. It is accompanied by a detailed implementation roadmap that outlines how the sector will scale demand-driven skilling, expand impact-sourcing pathways for youth, women and people living with disabilities, and accelerate digital and AI-enabled capabilities to ensure sustained growth and job creation.

Strategic focus areas and skills priorities

The GBS Skills Strategy is anchored around 12 Focus Areas that collectively position South Africa to build an agile, future-ready workforce capable of supporting digitally enabled and AI-augmented global services. These focus areas span youth employment, demand-driven curriculum reform, inclusive hiring, leadership development, professional pathways, impact sourcing, and the acceleration of new job families emerging through AI and digital transformation.

Across all 12 areas, the strategy emphasises workforce-centred design, employer-aligned learning pathways, systems change and stronger coordination across the skills ecosystem to ensure that South Africa remains a competitive global offshoring destination. The approach embeds modular curriculum reform, employer-aligned credentials, and demand-driven talent development so that training remains aligned to real industry needs.

BPESA, as the industry body for Global Business Services in South Africa, will play a pivotal role in driving execution. The organisation will lead a dedicated Project Management Office (PMO) and convene a GBS Skills Committee to steer implementation in collaboration with government, training partners, operators, social partners and other skills ecosystem stakeholders. The strategy embeds strong governance, monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL) frameworks to provide accountability, track progress, and drive continuous adaptation to 2030 and beyond.

GBS sector leaders call for collective action to drive GBS talent growth

Keith Rosmarin, BPESA Skills Portfolio Lead and the strategy programme manager, emphasised in support of the launch that the GBS Skills Strategy only succeeds if the ecosystem succeeds together. “By aligning BPO employers, training organisations, government, funders and stakeholders around a single skills agenda, we create a talent pipeline that is agile, inclusive, future-ready, and capable of delivering exceptional global services from South Africa.”

Andy Searle highlighted the need for streamlined funding, demand-led training, and inclusive hiring as fundamental levers for sustained growth, innovation, and job creation. Mark Angus, CEO and Chief Strategist of Genesis Global Business Services, emphasised the value of an integrated skills intelligence hub for workforce analysis, skills forecasting and strategic decision-making. He called for transparent, scalable, and inclusive funding to enable the strategy’s implementation in support of sector growth.

Judy Robison, Managing Director of Forvis Mazars Institute of Development, advocated for agile and globally recognised training models to keep pace with rapid industry changes. She referenced the success of modular and stackable learning initiatives, such as those delivered through The Collective X, which enable young people to obtain mentorship and certification.

Adam Walker, Associate Director EMEA L&D for Concentrix, highlighted the sector’s growing leadership gaps in the context of accelerating digital transformation. He stressed the need to prepare the workforce – from entry-level through leadership – for AI-augmented roles, emphasising how AI tools and services are reshaping efficiency productivity and revenue gains.

Lizelle Strydom Pottier, Managing Director of CareerBox, underscored the importance impact sourcing as a strategic talent model, not just a social responsibility initiative. She highlighted the direct link between inclusive hiring, improved retention and a real return on investment (ROI).

Angus encouraged industry leaders to use the Strategy as a guide for coordinated skills development. “Access the research report and the strategy – it’s a very rich body of work. Identify what needs to be done, take guidance, and accelerate your journey,” he said.

The strategy document, Blueprint for South Africa’s GBS Growth: The South Africa GBS Skills Strategy 2025–2030, was officially released during the BPESA GBS Conference in Durban on Wednesday, 5 November, where nearly 400 industry leaders gathered to discuss growth opportunities and the future of talent in the sector.

About BPESA

BPESA, the national industry body for the GBS sector, is a non-profit entity dedicated to promoting trade and serving the interests of its members and stakeholders involved in developing South Africa’s Global Business Services sector.

About the Global Business Services Sector

Global Business Services (GBS) and Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) refer to the outsourcing of services to third-party providers, often internationally. BPESA’s mandate is to attract international investment and cultivate a supportive ecosystem for sector growth. South Africa offers a compelling business case for international operators, with compatible time zones, advanced infrastructure, reliable IT environments, and a large pool of skilled talent. Servicing the local market also builds expertise that supports international operations, with a diverse range of GBS/BPO activities across disciplines and both inbound and outbound operations.

About the GBS Masterplan

Launched in 2022, the Global Business Services Masterplan is a country strategy designed to create 500,000 cumulative international-servicing jobs in the sector by 2030. Commissioned by the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition and its investment agency InvestSA, with BPESA, Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator, and other stakeholders as signatories, the masterplan underpins the sector’s growth and international competitiveness.

Issued by Aprio on behalf of BPESA.

For media enquiries, please contact:

BPESA: Nazley Salie: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.; Mobile: +27 66 336 6483

Aprio: Cecilia Pinto-Taylor: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.; Mobile: +2783 325 9169