The NEPAD Business Foundation (NBF) will graduate its latest batch of African Leadership Programme alumni on 1 December following six months of intense tuition at the Wits Business School in Johannesburg.
The ALP aims to train and up-skill managers and professionals on leadership challenges encountered in both the private and public sectors in Africa by combining practical business insight with personal leadership development skills.
NBF CEO Lynnette Chen says the programme focuses on economics, finance, strategic and operational management, marketing, human resources and specifically on curriculum that is relevant within the African context.
The programme comprises three core processes; the personal leadership assessment process is facilitated by registered psychologists and career development specialists and provides delegates with feedback on their performance through facilitated video feedback, psychometric instruments, performance on leadership simulations and individual presentations.
Added to this, each module is assessed through an examination or a written assignment. An essential component of the assessment is the Individual Leadership Project, where delegates are required to identify a problem in their organisation or community, develop ways to resolve it and produce a report with information on the method they used, together with their skills obtained from the experience.
Chen says the current course got underway in May 2008 with 24 students, of which 50% were women and various students from other African countries such as Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Angola.
The students will be awarded a Certificate of Competence by the Wits Business School on their graduation next month. The certificate is accredited by the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA) at the National Qualifications Framework (NQF) Level 7.
Patrick Kabuya, a 2008 ALP participant and the project director for the public sector and Africa at the Southern Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA) says he believes success is mainly based on the level of knowledge that one has and how it is applied.
“I am passionate about engaging in opportunities which contribute to improving my knowledge. The ALP programme offered me such an opportunity .The programme has enabled me to change my behaviour and rediscover my potential especially that of leadership.
“It has provided me with comprehensive tools that will enable me to continually increase my value, that of others and the organisations that I am involved in,” he says.
Chen says the NBF is already making “strategic plans” for the second phase of the programme, which will incorporate two additional African countries into the programme. “The course material will be available in languages such as French and Portuguese.
“In the future, the NBF will transform the programme into an electronic learning environment that will enable the programme to reach a larger audience than currently targeted. This is in order to achieve a critical mass of a new generation of African leaders that will enable the continent to succeed in facing its economic and social developmental challenges”
“In the future, the NBF will transform the programme into an electronic learning environment that will enable the programme to reach a larger audience than currently targeted. This is in order to achieve a critical mass of a new generation of African leaders that will enable the continent to succeed in facing its economic and social developmental challenges”
The next NBF ALP is scheduled to commence in May 2009 at the Wits Business School.