Young Leaders

WWF South Africa's Environmental Leaders programme has supported 128 interns over a decade, addressing high graduate unemployment by providing work-based learning and mentoring. The programme focuses on scarce green skills, resulting in 76% of participants finding employment directly after their internship, with 37% of those in newly created positions. It emphasizes transformation and diversity, recruiting from 20 universities across South Africa and partnering with 32 host organisations across government, NGO, and private sectors.

• Between 2011 and 2018, the WWF Environmental Leaders Programme supported 128 interns, growing from an initial pilot of six Master's graduates in 2011 to a peak of 50 placements in 2017.
• The programme has achieved a high employment rate, with 76% of interns securing employment directly after the internship; trend analysis indicates 82% find work within three months and an additional 15% within six months.
• The internship programme acts as a catalyst for job creation, with 37% of interns placed in newly created positions. For the 2017 intake specifically, 42% of interns were placed in new jobs.
• The programme prioritizes transformation and diversity, recruiting from 20 different universities across South Africa, with 83% of participants being black South Africans.
• WWF's approach to developing leaders relies on five key components: focusing on skills in high demand, career-focused work placement, workplace skills training, dedicated mentoring, and professional networking.
• The programme targets scarce skills to ensure employability, placing interns in roles such as Botanists, Zoologists, Ecologists, Taxonomists, GIS Technicians, and Energy Efficiency Technicians.
• Financial investment in the programme grew from an initial R2 million from Fondation Hoffmann to a cumulative total of over R20 million, with contributions from the WWF Nedbank Green Trust, Sanlam, USAID, and the National Skills Fund.
• The programme has expanded its reach to 32 partner organisations across various sectors, including NGOs (40%), the private sector (31%), national government (16%), and provincial government (3%).
• Historically, WWF supported the integration of environmental education into the South African school curriculum in 1998 by funding an Environmental Education Advisor to the Minister of Education.

APA

WWF South Africa (2018). Young Leaders. https://wwfafrica.awsassets.panda.org/downloads/wwf_decade_report.pdf

Chicago

WWF South Africa. Young Leaders. 2018. https://wwfafrica.awsassets.panda.org/downloads/wwf_decade_report.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=WWF South Africa |title=Young Leaders |date=October 2018 |url=https://wwfafrica.awsassets.panda.org/downloads/wwf_decade_report.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{wwfsouthafrica2018young, author = {{WWF South Africa}}, title = {{Young Leaders}}, institution = {WWF South Africa}, year = {2018}, month = oct, url = {https://wwfafrica.awsassets.panda.org/downloads/wwf_decade_report.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }