Opinion
What Africans want from Business Education Courses
Numerous business incubators and entrepreneurial programs have sprung up across the continent. Entrepreneurship is increasingly part of most business schools’ core offerings rather than being just an add-on or elective.
An entrepreneurial network for Africa’s business schools, the African Academic Association on Entrepreneurship’s, was launched in 2015. This underscores the growing value that is being placed on entrepreneurship education. It also reflects another trend: the increase in partnerships and support networks.
Nearly 80 percent of the business schools surveyed have ties with international business schools. Eighty-two percent have links with schools within Africa.
Values over Value
Globally, young people seem increasingly aware about social and environmental issues and have a greater sense of social responsibility. This is evident in the rising numbers of business students who elect to stay in Africa and reinvest in their communities.
The report also reveals that this new generation of African business students is not overly interested in building careers in finance or consulting. Instead, they are motivated by entrepreneurship and innovation. They want to engage with their communities.
The shift towards a more values-driven approach to business and business education is underpinned by sustainability and social responsibility. In Africa, sustainable and ethical business solutions are seen to be a major catalyst for transforming communities, improving living conditions and creating more opportunities for others.
These aspirations reflect the continent’s ambitions for greater unity and a sense that Africans must and can do it for themselves. At the 25th Ordinary Session of the African Union heads of State Summit held in June this year in Johannesburg, African nations recommitted themselves to creating a prosperous, peaceful and technologically advanced continent.
Business schools have a vital role to play by inspiring and equipping students to be part of this new path of development and make meaningful and lasting changes while running successful businesses.
The AABS report found that several of the continent’s older business schools – among them the University of Stellenbosch Business School, the University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business, the Gordon Institute of Business Science (all in South Africa) and Nigeria’s Lagos Business school – are examples of those which practice what they preach.
