.GSB&L Regional and Local Economic Development Initiative Wins Top International Award
Excellence and innovation in Entrepreneurship and Enterprise Skills in Africa has earned the Graduate School of Business and Leadership’s Regional and Local Economic Development Initiative (RLEDi) the International Education Business Partnership Network’s (IPN) 2014 Global Best Award.
The programme, a partnership between UKZN and the Department of Economic Development and Tourism (DEDT), enables young researchers to study towards their master’s degree under the guidance of UKZN with research focused on issues of social capital, clusters and entrepreneurship.
The biennial IPN competition for global best practice partnerships has a variety of categories related to the interface between skills development, skills gaps and education.
The GSB&L won the award in the category for initiatives which support learning about entrepreneurship and enterprising approaches through both schooling and exposure to entrepreneurial mentors and networks and which guide youth in taking decisions about when, with whom, and how to create viable businesses.
Speaking on behalf of the School, RLEDi Facilitator Dr Jennifer Houghton said they were delighted about the achievement and were now in the running for the overall best partnership.
‘This is a wonderful acknowledgement of the ground-breaking collaboration between the Department of Economic Development and Tourism and the GSB&L, along with the many stakeholder municipalities and development organisations we work with. We are so pleased the initiative to build appropriate and much needed skills for regional and economic development in KwaZulu-Natal has been recognised,’ she said.
Houghton added that the award would enable them to highlight the importance of the programme and facilitate the launch of the self-funded programmes and self-funded postgraduate diploma and masters degrees.
‘We’re involved with a second two-week partnership later this year with MIT staff and students to conduct problem-solving, field-based work on economic development in four sites across the province. We will also run a winter school in June which provides short courses for RLED practitioners in KwaZulu-Natal,’ she said.
The initiative will host a research symposium in September at which practitioners and academics in the field of RLED will be able to engage with cutting edge research and best practice case studies.
The School and winners from each of the six geographic regions - Africa, Asia, Australia/Oceania, Europe, North America and South America - will receive their awards at the 12th International education business Partnership Conference in Brussels in September.
The Conference is themed: “Youth Employability Partnership Solutions”, and creates an opportunity for the sharing of experiences and networking with partnership professionals from across the globe.
- Thandiwe Jumo