By Lebone Rodah Mosima
Allan Gray Makers is pushing for a coordinated trades economy capable of supporting hundreds of thousands of artisan-led businesses by 2035, as the number of unemployed young South Africans reaches five million.
The youth unemployment rate rose by 1.5 percentage points to 47.4% in the second quarter of 2026, according to Statistics South Africa, with the number of unemployed people aged 15 to 34 increasing by 264,000 to five million. Youth employment fell by 40,000 to 5.6 million over the same period.
Allan Gray Makers used its Fusion Fest 2026 in Gauteng to set out its longer-term plan aimed at turning technical and vocational skills into sustainable businesses capable of generating employment.
“By 2035, South Africa will have a coordinated trades entrepreneurial ecosystem catalysing the launch of 200 000 and growth of 20,000 artisan-led trades businesses,” said Seth Mulli, Programme Director of Allan Gray Makers.
The Makers programme focuses on developing entrepreneurship in technical and vocational trades. It says its aim is to support technical entrepreneurs to establish and grow businesses and, in turn, create employment.
The programme began as a pilot in 2018, with a focus on testing models that could accelerate entrepreneurship and job creation in vocational and technical trades, before being expanded more widely.
Its interventions include business incubation and entrepreneurship training for artisans. The 2026 StartUp Academy, for example, is an eight-month incubation programme aimed at aspiring entrepreneurs in bricklaying, carpentry, electrical work and plumbing, providing entrepreneurship training and business support.
Fusion Fest 2026 ran over three days in September, with its main conference bringing together about 150 participants from across the trades entrepreneurship ecosystem.
The conference at the Radisson Hotel & Convention Centre brought participants together in five working groups to examine ways of strengthening the sector.
Allan Gray Makers said the 2026 gathering moved beyond identifying weaknesses in the sector towards developing practical solutions.
ALSO READ: UJ, Barloworld open science centre at rural Limpopo school
Mulli said the work built on an assessment conducted around Fusion Fest 2025, when the organisation examined the sector against 10 conditions: institutions, culture, networks, infrastructure, demand, intermediaries, talent, knowledge, leadership and finance.
“We consolidated 10 conditions into five goals — not because the system became simpler, but because shared action must become clearer. Five goals that can be owned, resourced and measured,” Mulli said.
Those goals cover building stronger connections between organisations operating in the sector, improving the use of data, expanding the pipeline of artisan entrepreneurs, improving access to finance and markets, and changing perceptions of trades as a career and business opportunity.
The market-access element took a more concrete form during Fusion Fest, with the launch of Find A Maker, a digital platform aimed at connecting artisans directly with customers.
Allan Gray Makers said the app allows customers to find verified trade professionals through profiles, in-app messaging and two-way ratings. The platform has initially been launched in Gauteng.
Market-access is one of five areas Allan Gray Makers said must be addressed if small artisan businesses are to expand beyond survivalist enterprises.
The first area is building a more connected ecosystem in which funders, training bodies, government institutions and businesses better understand what others in the sector are doing.
The second is improving the evidence available to policymakers, funders and support organisations through research and shared data.
ALSO READ: UJ researchers honoured at 2026 NRF Awards
The third is creating a stronger pipeline of young people entering trades through TVET colleges, apprenticeships and other vocational pathways, with entrepreneurship presented as an option alongside formal employment.
The fourth focuses on making it easier for artisan-led enterprises to access appropriate funding, business support and paying customers — that requires business support that fits artisan enterprises, finance that reflects their real risk, and markets that reward quality, credibility and compliance.
The fifth goal is to change the status of trades and entrepreneurship so that artisan business owners are regarded as viable contributors to employment and economic growth rather than trades being seen primarily as a fallback career.
The Fusion Fest programme also included the Artisans of Mzansi business competition, where finalists pitched for prizes worth up to R200,000, followed by the South African National Artisan Awards, held in partnership with the Department of Higher Education and Training.
Allan Gray Makers said entrepreneurship alone would not solve South Africa’s employment crisis, but that improving access to skills, funding, markets and business support could allow more artisans to build enterprises capable of supporting livelihoods and creating jobs.
