Getting educated for jobs that don’t even exist yet
Ahmed Shaikh is MD of Regent Business School
What does your job entail?
My primary role is to provide strategic leadership to ensure we fulfil our mission of providing access to affordable and quality entrepreneurial, business management education. I believe that education is key to growth and transformation, and we remain committed to making a positive impact in the communities and students we serve.
What sets Regent apart from its peers?
Regent Business School (RBS) has adopted a tech-rich, future-focused approach to higher education to adapt to the ever-changing needs of the contemporary work environment. Our philosophy is summed up in three words: disrupt, rethink and innovate.
This philosophy guides our approach to reforming curricula and teaching methodologies so that students are exposed to the latest thinking in the world of business, disruptive and exponential technologies and innovation.
As a business school, we are acutely aware that the world of work and the global economy are in a state of constant flux, with new disciplines and industries being created virtually every day. Graduates must be prepared to excel at jobs that do not yet exist.
How has lockdown affected RBS?
The pandemic and the subsequent lockdown significantly altered the way we work, socialise and deliver education. With our homes becoming our offices and lecturers’ electronic devices becoming virtual classrooms, the pandemic and lockdown dramatically accelerated the trend towards remote learning and the pace of digitisation.
RBS began to leverage the latest technologies to explore concepts such as adaptive learning, using technology not only to communicate information, but to adapt to different learning styles and thereby improve student experience.
How did you end up in this job?
In many respects, the education sector found me — rather than me actively seeking to work in the sector. Having done some voluntary work in organising reskilling programmes for working adults, I was invited by the founder of RBS (Yusuf Karodia) to be involved full time in higher education.
It felt like a natural progression in my career, and it’s been a profoundly gratifying journey over the past 20 years.
What did you want to be when you were a child?
Engineering was fascinating for me while growing up. The ability to design, create, build, innovate and thereby benefit society seemed extremely interesting and exciting. I ended up studying mechanical engineering.
What career advice do you have for SA’s young people?
The short answer is: stay relevant, constantly reskill and build a problem-solving mindset — this will ensure that young South Africans will win in the “war for talent”.
More broadly speaking, this means embracing the concept of life-long learning.
Developing personal and professional skills coupled with in-demand skills and a healthy dose of human relations and soft skills is a concrete way to “future-proof” your career path.
We need to build a society of young people who are creative problem-solvers and seek to solve large social problems while being commercially aware of social entrepreneurship opportunities.