Business & MBA courses in Cape Town, South Africa

University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business:
The GSB alumni network comprises more than 18 000 past GSB students including over 11 000 alumni in South Africa and 7 000 alumni in 68 countries around the world. The alumni body constitutes a dynamic networking forum both for current students and the alumni themselves. GSB alumni hold key positions in some of the world’s leading companies. Well-known GSB alumni include Arthur Mashiatshidi (CEO Decorum Capital Partners), Sandile Zungu (chair of Denel), Kim MacFarland (chief operating officer of Investec Asset Management), Mike Page (Dean, Rotterdam School of Management) and Ian Kantor (CEO of Insinger De Beaufort). A number of GSB alumni have also gone on to start their own successful businesses and are now playing a vital role in supporting and encouraging more recent graduates to follow in their footsteps.

MBA
The UCT MBA is the only MBA in South Africa and Africa placed in the Financial Times Top 100 MBA rankings. The MBA programme is characterised by intensity of process and a full and demanding curriculum. It is designed to develop students both personally and professionally. The programme gives delegates the tools they need to create their own opportunities and succeed in the fast-paced world of today, whether in a small, new business or an established corporation.

The UCT MBA is one of the oldest management programmes in South Africa and has been producing world-class graduates for almost four decades.

The structure, process and content of the MBA seek to challenge students to the limit of their potential. The programme is more than an intensely rewarding course and an outstanding qualification, it is a life-changing experience. Graduates are equipped to deal with the complexities and pressures of the modern world and can hold their own regardless of where they come from or where they operate.

Executive MBA
The only programme of its kind in South Africa, the Executive MBA is targeted at senior and executive managers and leaders who want to move their careers and lives onto another level. The course uses sophisticated learning techniques that are far removed from classic pedagogic methods. Participants are taught to develop their critical thinking and decision-making abilities and their capacity to function in complex organisational and social environments.

As their careers progress and they take on additional responsibilities, executives and professionals have to contend with ever-increasing complexity. In a society such as South Africa, and indeed throughout the developing world, these complexities are compounded by the turbulence and uncertainties in the environment in which business is conducted. In these circumstances, it is the ability to think analytically and holistically and to find novel solutions, rather than simply the acquisition of knowledge and of technique, that lies at the core of the successful leader/manager.

AIM
AIM prepares high potential emerging managers and leaders to move into and through junior management via transformative learning. It is designed to equip individuals with the skills and the confidence to handle the complexities in their business (and wider) environments and to manage their own continuing learning and development. The uniqueness of the AIM class is marked by diversity. It includes candidates from diverse industries, geographical locations, educational and cultural backgrounds. Our goals are the development of skills and knowledge, financial fluency, self-confidence and personal awareness.

AIM was launched in 1991 and has continued to refine its offering so that it remains at the cutting edge of management development in South Africa. It offers opportunities to students to participate in a process that empowers individuals to realise their potential and to progress - to the benefit of all concerned. Since inception AIM has contributed to numerous success stories which are a testament to the programme's benefits.

All successful students graduate with a NQF5 level qualification from the University of Cape Town's Faculty of Commerce and are able to attend a formal graduation ceremony. In addition, graduates of AIM are eligible to apply for the Postgraduate Diploma in Business Administration or the UCT's prestigious MBA. They also automatically become part of the GSB's alumni network of more than 15 000 individuals worldwide.

Postgraduate Diploma in Business Administration
The Postgraduate Diploma in Business Administration (PDBA) has been developed to meet the changing needs in the South African marketplace and equips individuals with the right skills and knowledge to manage and lead effectively.

PDBA is positioned as a management development programme between the AIM and MBA programmes. The programme is designed for the following individuals who are considering a career change or career advancement:

- middle managers
- junior managers with proven leadership abilities
- specialized individuals who are moving into general management

The programme is designed to incorporate the core disciplines of business and courses in personal and organisational effectiveness to develop managers and leaders who are effective in both emerging and developed markets.

PDBA is a management development programme at a post-graduate, post work experience, pre-masters level. The qualification is registered at the National Qualifications Framework (NQF) level 7 and is aligned closely with that of the GSB MBA.

Open programmes
The latest programme of short courses offered by the GSB covers a wide range of development requirements. We include executive development for everyone from the emerging leader to the experienced executive, and courses which focus on areas of special interest.

Company specific customised programmes
The GSB Executive Education Unit is internationally acknowledged for its highly innovative and effective approach to customising programmes which address the individual needs of companies.

Organisational efficiencies and leadership requirements are assessed by the GSB's faculty and consultants, and appropriate interventions are designed and delivered in collaboration and alignment with the organisations's vision and strategic objectives.

Corporations with which Executive Education has a continuing involvement are varied in size, sector, focus and challenge. Examples include SABMiller, Metropolitan Holdings, Investec, Johnson & Jonhson, Sun International, Massmart, Pam Golding Properties, Protea Hotels and CRDB of Tanzania.

In December 2006 the Executive Education Unit was granted the prestigious Award for Excellence for customised programmes by The Economist's Intelligence Unit of London.

The in-company programmes offered by the Executive Education department are purely developmental and are not in any way constrained by requirements of accreditation. No formal assessment is necessary, but may be included if the organisation has that requirement.

Corporate Learning
Corporate Learning is a division of the prestigious University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business. (UCT GSB). Its focus is the acceleration of management and organisational development through the design and delivery of innovative in-company, accredited programmes.

Corporate Learning understands that many of the challenges facing managers and organisations today are not directly business related. Instead they are about people management, organisational viability and legitimacy in a world of rapid, complex and ambiguous change.

Our programmes are carefully designed to help individuals and their organisations grapple with these challenges. They are also customised to reflect the unique challenges facing our clients’ industry or sector for maximum effectiveness.

At the heart of our philosophy is the belief that management education is essentially about creating the conditions in which knowledge – the ability to turn information and data into effective action – can be created, stored and distributed through an organisation. We offer clients the rare opportunity to create a space in their organisation where authentic management development can take place. The result is viable organisations that deliver exceptional and sustained value to stakeholders.

The UCT GSB Corporate Learning philosophy is informed by ten years of active research and learning at the business school and by international best practice. Our learning philosophy is acknowledged to be among the most exciting and innovative in the world today.

Wine Business Management Programme
Modern business management practice requires a wider appreciation of value and value creation across organisations, industries and economies. In today’s competitive and transforming socio-economic environment businesses need to:

1. focus on its current and future value-adding processes and the stakeholders for which value is or is not recreated;
2. manage for value through initiatives like governance, change management, organisational culture, social responsibility, communication and leadership with a view to balancing economic value with social value; and
3. measure value using acceptable valuation processes.

From a customer point of view, value in the wine industry is generally “measured” in terms of the intrinsic quality, cost and the reputation and brand of the wine. From a shareholder point of view, value is largely seen as economic. The changing socio-economic and socio-political contexts in South Africa require that value also needs to be created by many other stakeholders in the wine industry. This is essentially social value; a value that is difficult to manage, as it is often seen to contradict shareholder and customer value. Managing this paradox is one of the biggest challenges in the South African wine industry. In order to create sustainable value, managers will need to manage this paradox.

The Wine Business Management Programme offered by the UCT Graduate School of Business is designed and delivered to develop managers who are able to manage for value creation and the issues and paradoxes that accompany this in the South African wine industry.

The Curriculum
The curriculum consists of four modules, each consisting of a short residential period followed by a 12-week part-time project period. The total residential period of the programme as a whole is 24 days. The programme is delivered over a 18-month period, making allowance for the harvest period, over which there is no formal academic activity.

Post Graduate Diploma in Management Practice (Event Management)
This Postgraduate Programme specialising in Event Management is a SAQA-accredited programme on NQF level 7 at 120 credits; aimed at experienced managers with relevant work and management experience and actively engaged in the event arena.

The course runs over a 15-month period as one eight-day module and a series of workshops for the contact blocks, plus one non-contact assignment-based module, and inter-modular periods of work-based action learning assignments within the workplace.