FabLab is a collaborative effort between The Innovation Hub and The City of Tshwane, aimed at promoting the culture of innovation and entrepreneurship at school level. The partnership was established in 2014 and is intended for identifying and nurturing young entrepreneurs at an early age. The main objective of the FabLab programme is to collaborate with schools and facilitate access to training in technology and innovation. The programme is also used to help the younger generation to better understand the world of business and entrepreneurship. This is done with the aim of enabling students to realize their potential in the field of technical and innovative services by exposing learners to the real world where they develop innovative products and are given opportunities to apply the theoretical aspects of the training.

Since the commencement of the schools programme in 2014 there have been fifteen schools that participated in the programme training with a total of 150 learners. The programme offers training in Computer Literacy, Entrepreneurship, Advanced Manufacturing, and Vacation work in collaboration with Geekulcha.

Vacation work is being offered by the schools programme and it is skills redistribution programs that equip learners with skills and exposure to ICT world during school holidays and focuses on mobile application development, graphic design, electronics and robotics.

On the 15^th of June, the programme graduated the third group of learners, but it wasn’t any ordinary graduation. The FabLab programme challenged their students to pitch innovative technologies to a group of panellists from The City of Tshwane. Their ideas had to be innovative, thought provoking and to offer solutions towards social challenge. The ideas ranged from energy saving solutions to water saving measures. Phateng Secondary School walked away with first prize, for their water saving solution, Mixed Magnetic. Mixed Magnetic is a timed tap which produces 500ml of water in 5.02 seconds. The tap also has an associated application which is able to detect water leaks. The winning school received ten tablets for each of the ten team members as well as a donation of R10 000 to the school sponsored by Nissan. The second prize was awarded to Father Smangaliso Mkhatswa Comprehensive School, using a converter, their genius technology is able to convert the direct current of a car battery into appliance electricity which can be used to charge cell phones, plug in televisions and DVD players and even a fridge. The school received R6000 in prize money from Nissan. Seshegong Secondary School received R4000 in prize money also from Nissan for their innovation designed for reducing electricity theft from meter boxes.