An MBA hones entrepreneurial skills
Business throughout Africa is crying out for the skills and acumen that students acquire
rated considerably higher than technical and vocational skills but most organisations focus on developing the latter.
There is a shortage of capacity to develop new managers. Africa has far too few good formal business schools to meet the need for management education.
The GSB&L is ideally placed to contribute to the development of local managers and to unlock the potential for growth in the country, region and continent. Its MBA is in accordance with its mission to produce and disseminate quality business knowledge that embodies academic excellence and practical relevance in addressing local, national and international priorities.
Applicants can register for the MBA if they:
Hold an honours degree or a postgraduate diploma at National Qualifications Framework level eight, or have been admitted to the status of an honours degree, or have attained a level of competence as provided for in the university’s admissions framework; and
Are at least 25 years old on January 1 of the year of first registration, have a minimum of three years formal, full-time work experi- ence and have passed the graduate management admission test or an entrance examination prescribed by the school.
The MBA is an appropriate programme to attract and develop practising business leaders. The degree is internationally recognised and signifies management and leadership training. In addition to providing a powerful life experience, the MBA equips managers with “hard” skills, such as economics, finance, marketing, operations, management and accounting, and the “soft” skills of leadership, teamwork, ethics and communication, which are so critical for effective management.
An MBA degree also offers access to a network of MBA students, alumni, faculty, business and community leaders.
Professor Narend Baijnath, the chief executive of the Council on Higher Education (CHE), in his keynote address at the South African Business Schools Association legotla, pointed out several relevant and regulatory realities.
It is important to note that the aspirations and opportunities for business schools are shaped and constrained by the institutional, regulatory, competitive and policy environments in which they operate.
And, in South Africa, relevant environmental factors include the relationship between business schools and their universities, coupled with the imperative to be aligned with the broader strategic goals of the university. Business schools are also required to adhere to centrally mandated policies, processes and practices of quality assurance under the auspices of the higher education quality committee of the CHE.
This reminder by Baijnath underscores the fact that, notwithstanding the desire of business schools to be creative, innovative and transformative, university and government policies dictate just how much freedom business schools have to restructure curricula and programmes.
The primary purpose of business schools is to provide training in business management. An MBA signifies that an individual has become a specialist or master of the skills necessary to manage a business or operation.
In the final analysis, what those skills are subject to is constant scrutiny and change, although always in the confines of what is acceptable to the higher education quality committee. As Baijnath says, an MBA programme must meet the quality assurances required by the higher education council.