Stellenbosch University ties up with Global Natives to offer master classes

The University of Stellenbosch Business School is offering courses designed to further hone the skills of experts in their field of business. The aim is to encourage intra-African interaction and trade through its regional expansion.

The South Africa based University of Stellenbosch Business School (USB), through its public development company, the USB Executive Development (USB-ED), has partnered with local training solutions provider Global Natives for the introduction of master classes on the Mauritian market.

Two courses on ‘Building corridors between Africa business leaders’ and ‘Building an organisation where talent wants to flock to’ were given recently as an introduction to the USB-ED master classes that are to be held in Mauritius. Other courses are scheduled this year with a private class for the Mauritius Commercial Bank in July and a master class in Flexible Business Modelling in September, open to all participants.

Frik Landman, Chief Executive Officer of the USB-ED, states that their partnership with Global Natives, in Mauritius, is part of the strategic orientation of the orga-nisation outside Africa. It is already present in 12 other countries including Botswana, Kenya, Saudi Arabia and Ethiopia.

The idea behind a master class, he explains, is to bring together already trained experts in order to further sharpen their skills. “They are not in need of a lot of information but this course could well make a difference. There are around 11 million managers operating in organisations across Africa and if we set that as a purpose, then we might have an impact on them,” says Frik Landman.

Certificates are delivered by the University of Stellenbosch Business School at the end of the training while the courses on offer have been designed in such a way that participants have the option to add them to their credits should they want to pursue an MBA with the University of Stellenbosch.

Encouraging intra-african trade

The idea behind choosing to offer these courses through a tie-up with a local partner stems from the interest of encouraging intra-African trade. Figures de-monstrate that intra-African trade currently stands at less than 10 % of total African exchanges while intra-Asian and intra-European trade are at 50 % and 70 % respectively.

“By operating with partners in Africa and creating regional knowledge hubs, we can start opening the knowledge corridors among them and introduce their business people and leaders into a space where they can actually get to know each other. This could boost the level of trade among their countries,” observes Frik Landman. By playing this role of facilitator, the USB-ED also aims at involving the private sector in influencing the African conversation and creating momentum.

Some of the topics covered in the master classes include the whole leadership pipeline, the questions that need to be asked in the boardroom and understanding of a business project. The courses are priced at a daily rate of ZAR 3,000 (approx. Rs 9,000) per person for senior programmes and ZAR 2,000 (approx. Rs 6,000) for lower level programmes.

The USB-ED is also looking forward to the introduction of an MBA course in Mauritius and subsequently, “a master’s degree and a postgraduate diploma in Deve-lopment Finance as well”, states Frik Landman. Master’s degrees in Project Management and in Coaching are sche-duled to follow.

The USB is accredited by the Higher Education Quality Council (HEQC) of the Council on Higher Education (CHE) under the auspices of Stellenbosch University. Furthermore, the USB is a member of leading bodies in the international and African business school community such as the Association of African Business Schools (AABS) and the Global Business School Network (GBSN). The USB’s international standing and reputation are confirmed by the Triple Crown international accreditations of the European Quality Improvement System (EQUIS), the Association of MBAs (AMBA) and the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB).