Innovation
We teach the tools that exist now and the habit of learning the ones that do not exist yet. The curriculum is rewritten before every intake, with employers in the room while we do it.
Development and Future Pathways
DUFP prepares young people for tomorrow's economy through digital skills, entrepreneurship, and creative problem solving.
Who we are
DUFP began in Plumstead with one borrowed classroom and a trolley of laptops. The premise has not changed since. Young people in Cape Town are not short of ability, they are short of access.
We work along a single line from first skill to first salary. Each of our three tracks feeds the next, and a participant can enter at any point and stay as long as the work is useful to them. Employers help shape the curriculum, mentors come from the cohorts before, and every outcome we publish is measured six months after completion rather than on the day someone graduates.
What we stand on
We teach the tools that exist now and the habit of learning the ones that do not exist yet. The curriculum is rewritten before every intake, with employers in the room while we do it.
Nobody gets it right first time, including us. We build the stamina to try again with better information.
Every graduate stays in the network. Each cohort is mentored by the one before it.
Our results
Figures cover the period to June 2026 and count only participants who completed a full track. Cohorts that fell below these averages are named in our annual review.
Programs
Twelve weeks, four days a week, laptops provided. Built alongside the employers who hire from every cohort, and assessed on work that ships rather than on a written exam.
Apply for the next intakeSix months from a validated idea to a first paying customer, with founders and operators who have done it sitting beside you. Ownership stays entirely with the founding team.
Pitch to the incubatorThe short, practical track. Four weeks on the things nobody teaches before an interview, ending with a networking evening where the room is filled with people who are actively hiring.
Book a placeOur people
Owns the bootcamp curriculum and every machine learning module. Twelve years in industry before she moved into teaching.
Two exits and one failure behind him. He talks about all three with equal detail, which is why founders trust him.
Brings live client briefs into the classroom, so the work produced in the room is work that goes out the door.
DUFP gave me the skills I needed to launch my own business. I went from unemployed to running a successful startup in less than a year.
Zanele Mokoena Cape Town
Insights and news
Starting January 2026 in Cape Town. Twelve weeks, laptops provided, and applications are open to anyone between eighteen and thirty five. Two hundred places across the year, selected on aptitude rather than prior qualifications.
Apply nowShowcase your startup to investors on December 10. Eight minutes on stage and a room of funders.
Request a slotA new scholarship programme covering full fees and certification for forty places.
Read the detailCareers
We are looking for trainers, mentors, and operations staff who believe in the power of youth.
Contact
Whether you want to join a cohort, hire a graduate, mentor, or fund a place, this reaches a person rather than a queue.
Send a message
A short note is enough. Say whether you are looking at a bootcamp, the incubator, hiring a graduate, mentoring or funding a place, and the right person will answer. We reply to every genuine enquiry, usually within two working days.
Prefer email? Write to z@dufp.org and it reaches the same people.
Last updated August 2026
When you contact us through this site we receive the name, email address, subject and message you send. If you apply for a programme we also collect the information on the application form, which may include your age, education history and employment status.
Application data is seen only by the staff assessing that intake. Unsuccessful applications are kept for twelve months so we can invite you to the next cohort, then deleted. You may ask us to delete yours sooner at any time.
We do not sell personal information and we do not share it with recruiters without your explicit permission for a specific role. Photographs and video from our sessions are published only with written consent, which you may withdraw.
Write to z@dufp.org to see, correct or delete anything we hold about you. We reply within thirty days and confirm in writing once your request is complete. This policy is offered in line with the Protection of Personal Information Act of South Africa.
DUFP, 18 Culm Road, Plumstead, Cape Town 7800, South Africa. Telephone +27 21 482 3956.
Last updated August 2026
You are welcome to read, quote and share what we publish here for study, teaching and reporting purposes. Please credit DUFP and link back to the page you took it from where that is practical.
Course material, exercises and project briefs remain ours and are licensed to participants for their own learning rather than for resale or for teaching under another name. Our name and mark may not be used to imply a partnership or an endorsement that does not exist.
Programme details, dates and entry requirements may change, and a place is confirmed only once we have written to you to say so. Selection is competitive and we cannot guarantee a place, a qualification or employment on completion.
Work you create on a DUFP programme belongs to you. We ask permission before showing it publicly, and a startup formed in our incubator remains owned by its founders. Any funding agreement is set out separately in writing.
We write carefully and correct mistakes openly, yet details change. Material here is offered for information rather than as professional, legal or financial advice.
These terms are governed by the laws of the Republic of South Africa. Questions are welcome at z@dufp.org.