Allan Gray Makers

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Allan Gray Makers

Where technical talent meets entrepreneurial spirit 🇿🇦
A programme of Allan & Gill Gray Philanthropies

21/08/2026

It's World Entrepreneurs' Day! 🎉

First launched in 2013 by the Alliance of International Business Associations, the day honours the founders, risk-takers and innovators who build businesses and create jobs. Today, we're celebrating that same spirit in our own trade community. 🔨

Describe your Trade business using only emojis. 👇

20/08/2026

Two weeks until Fusion Fest 2026. ⏳

This year will bring 150 ecosystem actors into five rooms of thirty people to spark new conversations about how to strengthen the trades ecosystem. Last year's Fusion Fest was about understanding the gaps in the trades ecosystem, while this year is about co-creating solutions to close these gaps. 🌱

🗓️ Thursday opens with the Fusion Fest conference. It will be a full day of testing South Africa's trade entrepreneurial ecosystem strategy with the people who have to deliver it.

🗓️ Friday brings the Artisans of Mzansi finals and the Find A Maker launch. Saturday closes the week with a Gala Dinner celebrating some of South Africa's top artisans at the South African National Artisan Awards.

What was your favourite memory or standout moment from Fusion Fest 2025? Share it with us in the comments below! 👇

19/08/2026

Ready for three days of connection, collaboration, and celebration of the trades? 🤝

South Africa's trade entrepreneurial ecosystem gathers from 3 to 5 September for Fusion Fest 2026 to convene and co-create, together.

Last year we started the conversation. This year, we build on it by connecting the people shaping the ecosystem and celebrating the artisans proving what collaboration can achieve.

Save the date. More details coming soon.

17/08/2026

🔑 Over 172 000 South Africans passed their trade test and earned a Red Seal between 2011 and 2020 alone. Behind every one of those numbers is a story.

What doors did being professionally trade tested open for you? A new job, your first client, the confidence to start your own business? We want the real story behind your qualification. 🛠️

Share your journey in the comments, we're building a thread of proof that a trade test changes everything. 👇

12/08/2026

Statistics South Africa's Q1 2026 Labour Force Survey is out. Here's what you need to know about the technical Trades. 🔨📊

Craft and related trade occupations still account for roughly 1 in 9 jobs in South Africa, and construction employment is up year-on-year, even as the category recorded a dip this quarter. Read together, the numbers point to a sector holding relatively steady, one worth keeping an eye on as the broader picture shifts.

What's your take on the numbers? Tell us below. 💬

09/08/2026

This Women's Day, we're celebrating the tradeswomen turning skill into success across South Africa, on site, in workshops and in business. 🛠️💼

Skill doesn't ask what gender you are, and these women prove it daily. Today we celebrate all the tradeswomen in our community. 🌺

07/08/2026

🎙️ MakersPod Season 2 Episode 2 is live.

Meet Thivhudziwi Vele, Acting Chief Director: Programmes and Qualifications at the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET ).

In this episode, he talks to Mashstartup about what a TVET qualification means for students. He unpacks the move away from the National Accredited Technical Education Diploma (NATED) programmes toward occupational qualifications, where theory, campus practicals and workplace-based learning happen together from the start.

The result? A qualification built for where the economy is headed, giving students the skills, the workplace exposure, and the confidence to step into an industry, or start one of their own.

He also covers what this means for currently enrolled students, and what the TVET landscape could look like over the next five to ten years.

Watch the full episode on our YouTube channel: https://youtu.pulse.ly/abowqyv5lj

05/08/2026

🎙️ A new episode of MakersPod is almost here, and it is Episode 2 of Season 2!

It's TVET Month, and there is no better time to sit down with someone driving the future of TVET education in South Africa. Mashstartup chats to Thivhudziwi Vele, Acting Chief Director: Programmes and Qualifications at the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET), about how TVET colleges are evolving to prepare the next generation of artisans for the world of work.

Stay tuned, the episode drops this Friday on our YouTube channel.

04/08/2026

South Africa's trades ecosystem just got a powerful new addition. 🛠️

Elangeni TVET College in Inchanga, KwaZulu-Natal recently launched its Artisan and Skills Development Centre alongside a dedicated Renewable Energy Training Centre, including a fully equipped photovoltaic workshop.

The launch, held under the theme "Skills Revolution Realised: From Skills to Production, From Training to Transformation", reflects what Allan Gray Makers believes about the trades. Skills development should lead to employment, enterprise, and opportunity.

The centre was developed through a partnership between Elangeni TVET College, EWSETA, the DHET, and the Chinese Culture and International Education Exchange Centre, bringing together local expertise and international knowledge to equip young South Africans for the Trades and the energy transition simultaneously.

This is the future of artisan education. And it is being built right now.

03/08/2026

Every day, TVET colleges across South Africa are building the technical skills our economy depends on, and this month we celebrate the artisans and tradespeople they produce.

August is TVET Month, the month South Africa turns its attention to Technical and Vocational Education and Training, and it's a mission close to ours. At Allan Gray Makers, we celebrate the Trades as a path full of opportunity, one that builds careers and businesses alike.

TVET learning equips young people with the practical, job-ready skills that power progress in critical sectors. A TVET qualification carries real weight, and it's time it gets the recognition it deserves.🏆

What's one skill you wish more young people knew was in demand? Tell us in the comments. 💬

Address

57 Sloane Street
Johannesburg
2191

Website

https://allangraymakers.co.za/about/, https://linktr.ee/AllanGMakers

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