OUBS develops initiative to help African managers run companies in Africa

Francis Cattermole, Lecturer in Business Development (Africa) and Rob Paton, Professor in Social Enterprise are developing a programme to meet the capacity building needs of management development in Africa. This involves working with public and private sector organisations to develop and trial various methods of content, pedagogy and delivery. It is a great opportunity for the OU to engage in sustainable management development.

“Africa has great growth potential but currently 14 million young people are unemployed. Current population predictions are that by 2020 we will need 600 million new jobs to cope with the growing numbers of working-aged people – the majority of them are young people in developing countries.

“Much development in Africa has to begin small. So micro-businesses are key. Entrepreneurs are people who move from earning enough to feed their own family to employing two other people and feeding three families. Many of these businesses form together as co-operatives and the training needs of very small organisations are very different from the traditional MBA.

“As important to the continent are larger organisations as Africa develops its own corporate companies and many global firms have a significant African presence. Too often the African entrepreneur has to do too much because there are no middle managers whilst global firms import their own experienced managers to Africa. We need to help develop African managers to help run African companies and companies in Africa.” Francis said.

Professor Rob Paton is leading the research proposal and Francis Cattermole is the lecturer responsible for working with organisations in Africa to develop and trial possible programmes.

Francis would be delighted to hear from any OUBS alumni who work in or with African organisations and who might be interested in being involved in the initiative. If you think this might be you then please email Francis francis.cattermole@open.ac.uk.