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 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.”
Skills expert 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.