World Youth Skills Day takes place on 15 July 2026 under the theme Skills for a Shared Future.
Observed by the United Nations, the day recognises the importance of equipping young people with the skills they need for employment, decent work and entrepreneurship. It also highlights the role that businesses, training institutions, policymakers, and communities can play in helping young people build future-ready capabilities.
At Kelpak, developing people has always been part of how we build our business. Through structured learnerships, graduate development programmes and an annual investment of more than R1 million in training and development, we aim to build capability from within while preparing our people for future opportunities. Today, employees continue to progress through our Chemical Operations learnership pathway, strengthening technical expertise while supporting long-term career development across the business.
Brandon Johannes, our Production Manager, started at the company in 2009, shortly after finishing secondary school. His first role was in harvesting, helping with manual truck loading before moving closer to the factory environment. From there, he learnt about packaging, stock, quality control, health and safety, procurement, ISO systems and production.
Through experience across different departments, supported by learnerships, mentorship, and leadership development, Brandon grew from the shop floor into a management role, where he now supports the next generation of operators, team leaders, and supervisors.
For Brandon, leadership is about serving others. Today, he continues to recognise talent in others, create a safe and respectful work environment and invest in people in the same way others invested in him.
- Kelpak celebrates its success stories this World Youth Skills Day.
Kelpak celebrates its success stories this World Youth Skills Day.
Eshel Brown’s journey tells another side of the same story
Eshel first started working as a truck assistant before moving into kelp loading and beach-based work. With encouragement from mentors and support from Kelpak, he pursued his heavy-duty truck licence, became a diver, and later established Eshel's Diving, now one of Kelpak's harvesting partners.
What began as a personal skills journey grew into a business that supports jobs, families and further training. Eshel’s team has grown from five people to 29, with staff supported to gain skills such as diving, driving, skipper training and heavy machinery operation.
Together, Brandon and Eshel’s journeys with Kelpak show that skills development is a long-term investment that can move through a business, into families and across communities.
At Kelpak, developing people is an investment in our future. Whether through learnerships, graduate development, leadership opportunities or entrepreneurial partnerships, we believe that when people grow, businesses, families and communities grow with them.
- ◼95 employees across the business
- ◼10 employees have completed the Chemical Operations Level 4 learnership
- ◼5 employees have completed Level 5
- ◼6 employees are currently completing Level 5
- ◼More than R1 million invested annually in training and development
Kelpak by the numbers
