In collaboration with Sub-Saharan African business schools, development partners and international experts, GBSN coordinated a 3-day design workshop that worked towards the development of two new training programs in the field of health management and agribusiness. This workshop focused on the management issues common to both health and agribusiness and how to effectively leverage the multi-disciplinary, practical approach of business schools to better serve these two sectors.
As a result of bringing these actors together, GBSN facilitated the creation of two new consortia of schools, which have the collective resources to seek external partners, raise necessary funding, and develop a shared curriculum of international quality to be adapted for each school’s agribusiness and health markets. With the workshop laying a foundation, the new consortia will develop learning platforms for each sector and subsequently oversee the implementation of the newly developed management programs on an initial pilot basis. During this time the schools will have an opportunity to test the markets and revise the newly established programs accordingly while also extending the programs to include additional local and international partners.
“Before the financial
crisis, a lot of business schools talked the talk on ethics and their contribution
to society, but did not make it a core part of their program. Now they are
seeing it as a key part of their curriculum. It is important that the values
of excellence, leadership, integrity and social awareness are imprinted on
students by business schools – this needs to be just as important as the
imparting of business skills.”
–
Mthuli Ncube, President of
the South African Association of Business Schools and Director of Wits Business School
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