New leadership development programme at Wits Business School
WITS Business School’s Leadership Development Centre (LDC) has recently launched a pilot programme, custom-designed for Vodacom, which is a combination of academic and executive education.
It is a Postgraduate Diploma in Business Administration (PDBA), modified to incorporate specific leadership development modules, presently the only one of its kind in South Africa.
“This could become the first of similar programmes run at WBS,” says Alison Foote, manager of the LDC.
“We have noticed that some senior managers are looking for a more academic slant to their business/leadership development, which includes gaining credits which could count towards a PDBA or MBA.”
WBS has responded by tailoring its sought-after PDBA accordingly and by registering certain executive education course modules so that they articulate into a PDBA.
Wits University has accredited four modules from the Senior Leaders Development course for articulation into the WBS PDBA/ MBA programme.
Would-be candidates, who have completed the Senior Leaders Development course, can obtain up to 20 credits towards their PDBA/MBA.
“The new elements that have been integrated into the PDBA curriculum include individual coaching sessions, an ‘Action Learning Programme’ and an emotional intelligence psychometric assessment.
“The result is a seamless mix of academic content with practical management and leadership skills development.
“Not only will delegates gain enormous personal benefit from one-on-one coaching from our qualified WBS-affiliated coaches, but they will also gain valuable experience through the Action Learning Project. “This involves working in syndicates on a project to find workable solutions to a company-specific challenge, posed by the Vodacom Executive team. “It provides invaluable lessons in problem-solving, research and teamwork – and for anyone wanting to go on to do their MBA, they couldn’t have better preparation,” says Foote. Thirty-four students from Vodacom, mostly senior managers and heads of department, have embarked on the new Ascend PDBA programme, which started on 14 September. Among them are five delegates from other parts of the continent, including Tanzania, Nigeria and Kenya. The programme will run until June 2018, with one five-day block every month. “This is in essence a ‘PDBA Plus’, and so it will be a tough but rewarding year for the delegates and who knows, maybe some of them will go on to do their MBA at WBS,” concludes Foote.