Botswana economy is moving from resources to knowledge with a common emphasis on human-machine collaborations, high skill levels and information
Education is central to bringing this about and Oneh Golding, country manager of USB Executive Development (USB-ED) Botswana said that corporate training is a big part of this.
She elaborated that diamonds and beef have traditionally been the cornerstones of Botswana’s economy. Recently, a 1,758-carat diamond was mined in Botswana. However, the country needs to explore a diversified knowledge-based economy when the resources run out. In this case, corporate executive education could make the change to empower a new generation of knowledge workers.
Professional development empowers talent to bring scarce skills and innovation to office environments and help self-starters to get their ‘gigs’ off the ground. According to Golding, this is crucial due to Botswana’s population, which is young and highly educated.
Golding said that across USB-ED’s corporate partners in the parastatal, financial, mining and government sectors, young leaders are pushing boundaries, challenging conventions and hungry for scarce skills.
“Innovation is top-of-mind for these leaders. They know a knowledge economy requires crucial ‘human’ soft and hard skills, like the ability to empathise, collaborate, and problem-solve,” Golding added.
Personal mastery is a big part of executive education. This has the potential to change a person as an individual. An individual has the capacity to change an organisation. Organisations have the potential to shift Botswana into the future and the knowledge economy it needs to be, Golding commented.
As times change and globalisation and digitisation become ever more ubiquitous, the country will be pushed to keep abreast with global and digital-age developments. With local and international competition driving progress, organisations will place great weight on talent management and succession planning, especially for key roles. Public-private partnerships that focus on education at all levels are pivotal to this.
