HRDC warns that automation and digitalisation are displacing routine work as Botswana’s labour market shifts towards specialised, technology-driven skills.
GAZETTE REPORTER
Botswana workers and job seekers face a changing labour market in which new technology-driven occupations are gaining importance while some traditional jobs risk disappearing under the weight of automation and digitalisation.
The Human Resource Development Council (HRDC)’s Annual Priority Skills Report 2026 identifies occupations expected to grow in importance while warning that repetitive and manual jobs are increasingly being displaced by technology and changing workplace practices.
According to HRDC, technological advances, artificial intelligence and climate change are reshaping skills requirements, creating opportunities for workers with digital, analytical and specialised capabilities while threatening some established occupations.
New jobs emerge
Among public-sector priority occupations identified by HRDC are Digital Transformation and AI Leads, Climate-Resilient Project Managers, Urban Planners, Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning specialists, Strategic Resource Mobilisation Officers and Policy Advocacy Strategists.
The list also includes Youth Resilience Coaches, Social Entrepreneurs/Venture Creators, firefighters and project managers.
HRDC further identifies growing demand for SMME business modelling, financial modelling, market analysis, climate-risk assessment and project design.
Emerging specialised professions include energy, labour, human-rights and data-protection lawyers as regulatory and technological changes generate new demands. Skills in ethical AI governance, innovation, resilience, change management and communicating complex data are also expected to become increasingly valuable.
Routine jobs shrink
As new careers emerge, HRDC warns that other occupations and tasks are becoming redundant or vulnerable to technological displacement.
Hospital orderlies, X-ray attendants, manual data-capturing workers, data-capturing clerks and typists are among occupations identified as facing redundancy or displacement.
Bulk printing and posting, manual sorting, copper cabling, hand-pattern marking and hand grading are also listed among vulnerable activities.
Citing global employment trends identified by the World Economic Forum, HRDC says affected workers will require retooling and reskilling to transition into emerging occupations.
Public service shift
The transformation could also reshape Botswana’s public service. HRDC argues that government should progressively offload implementation responsibilities to the private sector and concentrate on policy formulation and facilitation.
The report calls for right-sizing the public service while improving work ethics and strengthening implementation of policies and legislation. It identifies a ballooned public service, poor project implementation, corruption, crime, ineffective social protection programmes and rising youth unemployment among challenges requiring attention.
Under the proposed private-sector-led economic model, government would increasingly facilitate investment, competitiveness, public-private partnerships and employment creation.
Reskilling race
The emerging public service could consequently require fewer employees performing routine administrative tasks while increasing demand for specialists capable of managing digital transformation, complex projects, climate risks, policy and accountability.
HRDC says continuous monitoring of these shifts will be critical to ensuring Botswana trains workers for jobs that will exist in the future rather than occupations gradually disappearing from the economy.