Burgeoning economies must be fed by an educated and properly trained workforce. Put simply, talent shortages curb innovation, limit market potential and stifle economic growth. Therefore current ‘talent shortages’ represent another stark reality in Africa: A third of the CEOs in a PwC Global CEO Survey confirmed that a shortage of talent curbed innovation or stifled many market opportunities. Furthermore, almost half CEO’s consulted said talent costs had also climbed higher than expected. Recruitment and retention of skilled middle managers was also particularly challenging for 67 percent of the CEOs interviewed

A joint report by the World Economic Forum, the World Bank, and the African Development Bank lists the top three challenges in sub-Saharan Africa as access to finance, corruption, and finally, inadequate infrastructure through inadequate or outdated investment in capacity building.

AFS contends that to raise education standards and to create a momentum of the importance of learning recognition within Africa, Governments, States and the private sector must accordingly and substantially increase their infrastructure or ’capacity building’ spending. For example, Nigeria as one of Africa’s leading economies, which aims to be among the world’s top 20 economies by 2020. To achieve this and to even reach the same infrastructure levels that Brazil enjoys today, would require additional Nigerian investment in capacity building in excess of $190 billion or an additional 3 percent of GDP for the next 20 years.

AFS ‘transformation’ programmes introduced through our Business Academy, address these challenges. Short term change through stop gap solutions are reversible and a waste of investment, time and resources. Sustainable AFS resourced ‘transformation’ programmes deliver permanent, well supported industry sectors and underpin self-determination inclusion and empowerment. Our self-perpetuating methodologies, create trade and not aid and deliver hope to struggling Africans. AFS programmes offer hope where there was once only despondency and despair.

AFS Business Academy Programmes recognise that we can learn so much from existing African practitioners, artisans, local experts and from local culture. Accordingly, one of our proudest attainments is our ability to ‘listen’ and learn. We harness this front line learning knowledge to our sector expertise, our experience, our delivery of cutting edge technical, academic and management techniques and our success in coaching and implementing our management Tools. These tools are user friendly, understandable, helpful and encouragingly engaging. Deployment of our techniques helps build strong local engagement, delivers mutual respect and grows sound relationships. Our project delivery is open to improvement and our content is constantly flexible and our management teams are keen to learn and are always approachable and accessible. We constantly ‘listen and learn’ on a daily basis which enables our ability to diversify, spread our exposure and mitigate project and sector risk.

Learning is at the heart of all we do and enables us to understand local, regional and National challenges and to provide capacity building solutions which are fit for purpose, helpful, understandable and effective and which deliver permanent sustainable transformative solutions.

Knowledge is Power!

The AFS Academy courses help underpin all our initiatives as education coupled with personal and organizational improvement, are the drivers of all our initiatives and permeate all our efforts and enterprises. AFS view each day as an opportunity to learn something new. Knowledge underpins all our activities and our joint ventures. It is capacity and infrastructure building which will enable the ‘as yet untapped and underdeveloped’ resource of women and young people and which will enable companies and organisations to develop and capture the immense future potential of Africa.

AFS courses, instructors, trainees and managers are all dedicated to listening first to local experts and artisans and then learning about local customs and cultures before identifying where our expertise can then be introduced to help improve the often raw and unpolished talent and potential of unenlightened people, employees and decision making management and helps maximise unfulfilled potential.

AFS Learning is also complemented by our Radio and Television platform, entitled ABCi media which broadcasts daily as an English speaking public service vehicle but is also to be featured as an ‘on-stream’ Academy learning support platform to support capacity building programmes on Farming, Oil & Gas, Mining, Telecommunications and Banking and Financial Services.

Our courses help learners gain invaluable insights from understanding process through to improving delivery and finally embracing the embedding of sustainable and permanent transformation to the benefit of families, communities, companies, organisations, States and even Federal Governments.

African investment in Capacity Building will enable the emergence of an entire new strata of improved earners throughout the Continent’s population. As our Entrepreneurial/Agroforestry initiatives are of supreme relevance to improving the livelihoods of subsistence farmers and their families and since farming families represent 70% of all Africans, then AFS, our joint venture partners and our Clients have the most powerful and potent tool and opportunity to deliver economic prosperity for Africa. Consequently, through enhanced earnings and the emergence from the ‘Poverty Trap’ of countless numbers of Africans, AFS can help create a whole new strata of consumer spenders and provide a new boost to economic advancement in the Continent.

The time to act is now!

Commissioning AFS engagement can make this happen!

The programme and content of AFS Business Academy is based on the needs within the African markets and industry sector. We have been able to design these innovative, inspiring and transformational programmes through research and data obtained from the Centre for African Policy, Development and Research Scotland. This information is complemented by data from global organisations and from various leading consulting and think tank institutes with focus on specialist sectors and relevance in Africa.

All AFS Business Academy programmes are UK/Internationally recognized qualifications, accredited at Certificate and Diploma level. Participants receive an AFSBA award on successful completion of all assessments and trainings.

Accredited industry and professional short course provider

AFSBA is an EFQM Accredited Short Course Provider

All AFSBA courses are UK accredited based on the EFQM accreditation by Quality Scotland

The African Forum Scotland Business Academy consists of the schools of:

• Business & Entrepreneurial Leadership
• Drama & Film Production
• Media & Consultancy
• Media & Consultancy
• Research Skills & Academic Writing
• Employability, Personal and Professional Development
• Upstream Oil and Gas Industry `Finishing School`