REPORT OF THE TEN COUNTRY AFRICAN LECTURE TOUR Money Alone Cannot Solve This Welder / Manufacturing Skill Problem Technology Transfer is Key
FROM MIKE VALLEZ™
On July 28, I finished my tour of eleven countries and visits to some of you who have become engaged in the African Welding School Program. It was a very successful trip, and I appreciate all the hospitality shown to me during my travels. I wish I had more time in your country to visit everyone. It should be easier now that I have relocated to Nairobi, Kenya.
Every day, week, month, we get closer to the formal launch of the program. We continue to build our organizations and detailed plans for such things as the Train the Trainers Program, student scholarships, and other initiatives. Special groups are being formed, drawing together some of the top talent in Africa and beyond. We continue to prepare more newsletters and market awareness campaigns.
We are expanding the Blue-Ribbon Committee with top African representatives of industry, academia and civil society. If you would like to nominate anyone for this committee, please let us know. Our current committee page currently shows 19 members, but we are always welcoming more members who are willing to “put their shoulder to the wheel”.
https://www.gfp-intl.org/blue-ribbon-committee-members/
Over thirty schools have now submitted letters of interest, and most have submitted grant applications for modern welding centers of excellence. Brian Masicha, our Assistant Program Director located in Kenya, is working hard with some remaining schools who are still working on their grant applications and other documentation. He can be reached by email at bmasicha@gfp-intl.org.
To address the critical need for manufacturing skills and technologies in Africa, we are working on developing a concept for a Center for Manufacturing Skills and Technologies for one of the universities we are working with. This could become a model for other institutions. As you may have noted in our latest newsletter, we attended the 2025 FABTECH Convention in Chicago, Illinois with 50,000 attendees:
The theme of this year’s convention was:
We will be initiating an effort to gather more African leaders from the education and training space to attend the 2026 FABTECH Convention.
We do have one request……… patience. It has taken us three years to get to this point in our development, team building and organization. Our big challenge will now be fundraising. We believe that the groundwork we have been doing with our newsletter to 4,000 key people has raised awareness about the work we are all doing together. As a sign of my personal confidence and commitment, barring any unexpected interruptions, I will be relocating to Africa in September.
Below find an updated history of our work captured in photos.
Best regards,
Eng. Michael Vallez
If you have not read our strategic execution plan or watched our full lecture yet, here are the links:
Execution Plan (copy and paste in your URL bar)
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Full Lecture
History in Photos
Raising African Skills to World Class Standards
Trade School Technology Transfer
Welding School Centers of Excellence
Centers for Manufacturing Skills and Technologies
African Skills and Development Group Ltd. was established in 2024 as a sister organization to GFP International to serve as a project management implementation team for welding school modernization projects across Africa and provide a conduit to good jobs for graduates of industrial welding schools who have been taught the skills for an industrial work force. Current practices in welding schools outside of South Africa only teach ornamental welding skills, which do not prepare students to meet the needs of the coming industrialization boom in Africa.
GFP International is a non-profit organization whose mission is to support the upgrading of trade skill education in Africa as described on its website found at this link:
This page provides a brief history of GFP International and African Skills and Development Group Ltd.
GFP International has a history that dates to 2005 when its founder visited Matamba Tanzania, a small village located in the southern highlands of Tanzania in the Njombe District.
In 2005, it was the height of the HIV/AIDS epidemic when our founder first visited Africa. Feeling grateful after recovering from a life-threatening illness, Mike Vallez reached out to various faiths in Minnesota where he lived and found a group of like-minded people to join hands and work together. Meeting every month, this coalition became known as Global Faith Partners. One thing led to another, and GFP became involved in working with Father Augustine Mbiche, a Catholic Priest in the town of Matamba, Tanzania. During a visit to Tanzania in 2005, Father Mbiche showed Mike Vallez a piece of land where he hoped to build an elementary school. Saint Monica’s Elementary School is now thriving, teaching subjects in English, with students scoring in the top 3% of nationally administered tests.
| St. Monica’s is now a thriving k-7 elementary school, but the students do not have an equivalent high quality secondary school to attend in the Matamba area. Global Faith Partners was asked to help raise funds for a secondary boarding school, when the decision was made to create a formal non-profit NGO, now called GFP International.
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| Five years later, Saint Monica’s Secondary school is nearing completion, and grades 8 and 9 (Form 1 and 2) have started classes. |
Beginning with a small idea to install some welding machines in St. Monica’s Secondary school, GFP International has expanded its mission to support existing vocational schools across Africa to raise skill standards to world class levels, starting with the welding trade.
| After a 2022 meeting with the Honorable January Makamba, Tanzania’s Minister of Energy, GFP came to understand the depth of the skill gap problem in Africa and decided to embrace the challenge. The rest is history. |
GFP International Chairman and Welding Advisory Team with Dr. Noel Mbonde, Tanzanian Director of Technical Education. From left to right: Nick Price, Director of Welding Training at Davis County Technical School, Ogden, Utah; Ryan Eubank, welding consultant and trainer, Cleveland, Ohio; Dr. Noel Mbonde, Director of Technical Training, Dodoma Tanzania; Michael Vallez, Chairman/CEO of GFP International, Salt Lake City, Utah; Subu Mpapane, South African metallurgical engineer, industrial contractor, welding expert.
With Mr. Fihili Challenge, DAB Coordinator, and Ms. Anna Nyoni, Curriculum Developer,
Vocational Training and Education Authority (VETA)
With Mr. Anthony Kasore, Director General of VETA
(Oversees 43 existing training centers with 23 under construction)
Michael Vallez and Dunford Mpelumbe meeting with Father Boniface Mchami, Principal of Don Bosco Technical School and his instructors in Dodoma, Tanzania.
Michael Vallez, GFP Chairman/CEO with Tanzanian Ambassador to the U.S., H.E. Elise Kanza
Michael Vallez, Chairman/CEO of GFP International meeting with Father Waldemar Jonatowski, Principal of Don Bosco Vocational School, Dar es Salaam
Michael Vallez, Chairman/CEO of GFP International meeting with Mr. Joseph Mwanda, Principal of VETA Vocational School, Dar es Salaam.
With Mr. Khalid Songoro, President, Songoro Marine and Shipbuilding, the largest employer of welders in Tanzania.
Michael Vallez, Chairman/CEO of GFP International, meeting with Mr. Khalid Songoro, President of Songoro Marine shipbuilders in Dar es Salaam.
Ryan Eubank, GFP Advisor, doing some coaching with one of the welding students.
GFP International leadership and advisory team with VETA Principal Harry Mmari and his team at VETA school in Lindi Tanzania.
Ryan Eubank enjoying the camaraderie with future welders in Lindi, Tanzania.
With Mr. Ally Msaki, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Employment and Skills Development, Republic of Tanzania
With Father Waldemar Jonatowski, Principal of Don Bosco Trade School, Dar es Salaam
Enjoying an evening over dinner with a Tanzanian Welders Association (Sadly, none of these men or their welder friends could get hired on the EACOP Pipeline Project)
Michael Vallez accepting the walking stick gift from Matambile Mgemaa, Massai leader near Ruaha National Park.
Michael Vallez, Chairman/CEO of GFP International meeting with Mr. Stanslaus Mtibara, Principal of VETA Dodoma.
With Father Waldemar Jonatowski, Principal of Don Bosco Trade School, Dar es Salaam
With Dr. Violet Kajubiri Froelich and Uganda’s Education Service Commission she Chairs.
With the Leadership of the Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET_ Authority in Kenya
Nakawa Technical Training Center, Kampala Uganda
At the Don Bosco St. Joseph Vocational Training Center, Kamuli, Uganda
At the Morendat Institute of Oil and Gas, Kenya Pipeline Company, Nairobi, Kenya
Lugogo Vocational Training Institute, Kampala, Uganda
Mike Vallez, Hilu Bura and Nancy Halden, at the African Investment Conference London, England
Mkokotoni Vocational Training Center Zanzibar Vocational Training Authority
At the Karume Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) Republic of Zanzibar
With Engineer Zena Said, First Secretary, United Republic of Zanzibar
With Hon Lela Mussa, Zanzibar Minister of Education and Vocational Training
With the Rwanda TVET Board, Kigali, Rwanda
At Don Bosco Boys Town Vocational Training Center, Nairobi, Kenya
At Don Bosco Gatenga Vocational School, Kigali, Rwanda
At the South African Institute of Welding (SAIW) in Johannesberg, S. Africa
Left to Right, (unknown), Richard Arn, V.P., Welding and Technology; Michael Vallez, Founder, GFP International; Cassandra Scheffer, Director of Accreditation; Efram Abrams, Senior Sales Executive; Nathan Carter,
Brenda Boddiger, Program Manager, Qualification & Certification; Stephen Snyder, Regional Director, Welding Technology Services-Asia, Africa, Oceania
In May 2024, an East African lecture tour was conducted by GFP International Founder Michael Vallez and project manager Brian Masicha. AWS executives, Steve Snyder and Ramesh Shankaran joined for the Nairobi Kenya portion of the tour, as well as Dr. Kipikirui, Director General/CEO of the Technical and Vocational Education and Training Authority; Dr. Paul Wanyeki, Deputy Director of the Kenya TVET, and Mr. Ruto Lyoba, Director of the East African Institute of Welding. The group visited and spoke with technical and vocational schools. Speaking to nearly 1,000 students, these young men and women learned about the key role of welding in an industrial economy. It is hoped that they will become advocates for positive changes in the quality of trade skill training, and industrial welding.
Kenya Portion
- Kenya School of TVET
- Kabete National Polytechnic
- Kiambui Institute of Science and Technology
- Technical University of Mombasa
- The Kenya Coast National Polytechnic
- Bandari Marine Technology
Rwanda Tour
- Charles de Jesus Trade School
- ADEF TVET School
- Gacuriro Technical School
Zanzibar Tour
- Karume Institute of Science and Technology
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania Tour
- Don Bosco Oyster Bay Vocational School
- University of Dar es Salaam, School of Engineering and Technology
Upon completion of the East African lecture tour, and consultation with legal counsel in the U.S. and East African countries, GFP International learned of the complexities of forming, registering and operating a non-profit organization in multiple jurisdictions with different and cumbersome rules and regulations regarding non-profit entities. Every school visited would require modern equipment and more space to graduate the same number of students, but with internationally recognized skills. Fund managers need on-site observation to provide assurance and auditability to donors. Welding school graduates need access to good paying jobs, both in and outside of Africa. The founder of GFP International decided to form a regular US corporate shell with the intent to form subsidiaries in multiple African countries with local shareholders to help build a sustainable enterprise that would help achieve the goals and objectives of GFP International. The idea of African Skills and Development Ltd. was born, doing business as African Skills and Development Group Ltd.
