Edinburgh Business School graduates gather in Joburg

The event will also celebrate the first 23 graduates from the African Scholarship programme launched and funded by Edinburgh Business School in 2010. The scholarship scheme offers 250 people in Africa a fully funded place on the Edinburgh Business School distance learning MBA (Master of Business Administration) programme.

The scholarship programme has enabled applicants from across Africa to gain access to advanced management skills and expertise, helping them to effect change in their organisations and communities. The flexibility of the distance learning MBA has also enabled students to continue working while they learn, implementing their new knowledge and skills in the workplace immediately.

Equipped with enhancing skills

Professor Keith Lumsden, academic director of the Edinburgh Business School, the Graduate School of Business of Heriot-Watt University, commented on the school's presence in Africa and scholarship scheme: "Edinburgh Business School has been active in Africa for over 20 years and to celebrate this long-standing relationship, we established The Africa Scholarship Programme in 2010. We are very proud to recognise and celebrate all of our graduates today. They emerge equipped with skills that will enhance not only their own lives, but also the wider communities around them. All of the people we are recognising at today's event have worked hard to secure their MBAs and will, no doubt, go on to achieve great things."

In order to apply for a place on the MBA programme, students must be a national or resident in a sub-Saharan African country, have a university degree and at least two years of full-time work experience. For more, go to www.ebsglobal.net/africa