About GEMIS Technical Academy

Built by practitioners.
Designed for the
South African workplace.

GEMIS Technical Academy is South Africa’s AI training Academy. Not a tech startup. Not an adapted offshore product. A practitioner-led organisation built on over 35 years of technology training experience, and a conviction that the right way to learn AI is by doing it — with free tools, in your own context, with facilitation that takes your experience seriously.

35+
Years experience
4,500+
Learners certified
R45M+
Training delivered
5
Product lines
The story

Why we
built this.

There is a gap in South Africa between what AI tools can do and what most professionals feel equipped to do with them. It is not a gap of intelligence or ambition. It is a gap of access — access to training that is practical, locally relevant, facilitated by someone who understands the South African workplace, and built around tools that participants can keep using after the programme ends.

The online courses exist. The YouTube tutorials exist. The webinars exist. What has been missing is structured, hands-on, facilitator-led training that meets South African professionals where they are — in their sector, with their regulatory context, using tools that are genuinely free — and gives them the confidence to change how they work.

“The goal is not a participant who knows what AI can do. It is a professional whose daily work is permanently and visibly better because of it.”

Founded

GEMIS Technical Academy was launched to fill that gap. It operates as a division of GEM Information Systems (Pty) Ltd, a software development company with a track record of building enterprise systems for South African NGOs and SMEs. The Academy’s curriculum, methodology and technology infrastructure are the work of Leon Small, who leads the Academy as Programme Director.

The approach

Hands-on practice rather than demonstration — every session is built to produce real work output.

Every tool taught is free and available indefinitely — no subscriptions required after the programme.

Every scenario is built for South African workplace realities — sector-specific, regulation-aware, context-relevant.

The curriculum is refreshed quarterly through the Living Curriculum Engine — the training stays current as tools evolve.

November 2025
Jordan Wine Estate, Stellenbosch

The first public retreat. Experienced professionals from across fields who had built long careers without AI — and two days to change that. What happened in that room confirmed everything the Academy had been built to do, and set the direction for everything that has followed.

Read the story →
What we believe

The convictions behind every programme.

These are not marketing positions. They are the design principles that shape every activity, every product decision and every facilitation choice the Academy makes.

💪

Hands-on over presentation

Watching someone use an AI tool is not training. Doing it yourself — with your own work, in a structured environment, with a facilitator available to help — is training. Every programme we build is designed around practice, not demonstration.

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Free tools only

Every tool we teach with is free. Not because we cannot access enterprise software, but because behaviour change requires frictionless access. If using a tool requires a subscription or IT approval, the habit never forms. Free tools remove that barrier permanently.

🇿🇦

South African context always

CAPS. POPIA. CCMA. NHI. SETA frameworks. The regulatory and workplace realities of South African organisations are built into every activity, every scenario and every example. Not adapted from a global template. Designed here, for here.

🔁

Currency through the Living Curriculum Engine

AI tools change faster than any manual curriculum review can accommodate. The Living Curriculum Engine refreshes every activity on a quarterly cycle, reviewed by human experts, so the training your team receives reflects how the tools actually work today — not how they worked when the curriculum was written.

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Training should change how people work

The measure of good AI training is not a participant’s enthusiasm at the end of the day. It is whether they work differently three months later. We design every programme with that outcome in mind — the tools, the facilitation, the follow-up access, all of it.

Honest about where we are

GEMIS Technical Academy is a young organisation backed by deep experience. We have one successful public retreat behind us. We are building the rest with the same rigour and care that has underpinned 35 years of technology training work. We will not overstate what we are. We will not understate what we know how to do.

The people

Experience you can verify.

GEMIS Technical Academy is a lean organisation in its early phase. The credentials behind it are not.

🎓
Leon Small
Programme Director, GEMIS Technical Academy

Over 35 years of technology and training experience, from mainframe programming through enterprise software development to AI training programme design. Former lecturer at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology. Managed national training rollouts certifying thousands of learners and overseeing more than R45 million in training projects.

Career highlights
National training rollout for BMW SA — 1,200 employees, 90% certification rate
ETQA Manager overseeing R45M in training projects
8 years lecturing at Cape Peninsula University of Technology
Enterprise systems for FNB, BP Southern Africa, Cape Metrorail
Founder of Knowledge3 Infotech, managing teams of 16+ developers
💻
Graeme Mehl
Co-founder, GEM Information Systems

Co-founder and CEO of GEM Information Systems, the software development company that provides the operational and financial foundation on which GEMIS Technical Academy is built. Graeme brings deep connections across South African academic and institutional networks, positioning the Academy well for longer-term partnerships in the higher education and research sectors.

GEM Information Systems has spent over a decade building enterprise systems for South African NGOs and SMEs. gemis.co.za
Curriculum and delivery team

The Academy’s curriculum is designed and reviewed by a specialist team with deep instructional design experience and strong subject matter knowledge across education, corporate training and South African workplace contexts.

Warren HendricksCurriculum specialist and content reviewer
Waldon HendricksInstructional designer
Sebastian VriesCape Town facilitator
Ethan HendricksJohannesburg facilitator
Where we started

Jordan Wine Estate. November 2025.

The first public AI Advantage™ retreat ran at Jordan Wine Estate in Stellenbosch in November 2025. The participants were experienced professionals from a range of fields — managers, consultants, educators and entrepreneurs — most of whom had never sat down with AI tools in any structured way. Some were sceptical. Several had almost not come.

What happened over those two days confirmed the fundamental design assumption behind every programme the Academy has built: experienced professionals are not behind. They are underserved. Give them a structured environment, a skilled facilitator, and two days of hands-on practice with the right tools — and the question stops being whether AI is useful and starts being how much.

The full account of what we learned from that first retreat is published in our Insights. Read the story →

The organisation behind the Academy

GEMIS Technical Academy
and GEM Information Systems.

GEMIS Technical Academy operates as a division of GEM Information Systems (Pty) Ltd — a South African software development company with over a decade of experience building enterprise systems for NGOs and SMEs across the country.

The two organisations share a brand by agreement. They are operationally distinct. GEM Information Systems is a software development company based in Edgemead, Cape Town. GEMIS Technical Academy is an AI training organisation with its registered address at 66 Park Lane, Sandown, Sandton. All Academy enquiries, invoices and communications use the gemis.tech domain and the Academy’s contact details.

The Academy’s curriculum, methodology, product architecture and technology infrastructure — including the Living Curriculum Engine — are the intellectual property of Leon Small. GEM Information Systems provides the operational and financial foundation that allows the Academy to operate and grow.

Visit gemis.co.za →
GEMIS Technical Academy
AI training — gemis.tech
66 Park Lane, Sandown, Sandton
training@gemis.tech
+27 11 219 5008
GEM Information Systems
Software development — gemis.co.za
Edgemead, Cape Town
info@gemis.co.za

All Academy invoices are issued under the GEM Information Systems VAT registration number. The two addresses should not be conflated — all Academy training, communications and commercial activity are conducted through gemis.tech.

Get in touch

Explore what the Academy
can do for your organisation.

Whether you are looking for a public retreat, an onsite programme for your team, AI training for your school, or a bespoke development project — start with a conversation.

Explore our programmes Send us a message
📞+27 11 219 5008
📍66 Park Lane, Sandown, Sandton
For large-scale or strategic enquiries

For myAI projects, Education Excellence™ partnerships, higher education engagements or any enquiry that requires a direct conversation with the Programme Director, email Leon directly.

Email Leon directly
leon@gemis.tech
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