The Honoris Academic Council, which was created in February 2019, comprises of five representatives from within the Honoris network with exemplary backgrounds and academic experiences whose mission is to guide and coordinate collaborative intelligence work across the Honoris network.
On a more granular level, its goal is to differentiate Honoris institutions and graduates through superior workplace skills and performance. The Council is developing several initiatives designed to boost workplace skills and employability, including a new Honoris 21st Century Skills Certificate, an employability road map and student and faculty exchange programs. The Council’s work is an important investment in the development of world-class human capital that has the potential to transform Africa by equipping students with soft skills and digital capabilities – as well as real-world expertise, and multi-cultural immersion.
Student And Faculty Exchange Program
One of the key goals for Honoris United Universities is to establish Student and Faculty Exchange Programs, which will allow our students and our faculty to experience the network on a full scale and in different executions – from semester and summer programs to study tours, joint research programs and guest lecturers (onsite or online), for example.
The fundamental idea is to enable a differentiating and relevant experience, personally and professionally, for you and for our communities. To do so, we will need creativity, flexibility and innovation when considering our curricular offer, compliance, pricing/costs, and calendars. This is where your solutions-minded expertise is a must. Moreover, faculty exchanges will allow our collaborative intelligence to move quickly and expertly across the continent with respect to accreditations, program upgrades or renewals, new offer and employer / entrepreneurship relationships.
In doing so, the physical or digital exchanges will reinforce a multicultural academic experience with a pan-African immersion.
Employability Agenda
We believe in creating strong learning environments that encompass a pragmatic focus on core employability competencies – this is how we intend to prepare graduates for life in the fast-paced, highly interconnected world of today and tomorrow. With ever-more sophisticated technologies, such as AI, permeating our day-to-day, the pressure is on for us and for our students and graduates to be equipped with the ability to adapt – and adapt quickly. Employability units, such as the innovative iLeadLAB at Regent Business School, plugs into this phenomenon. The students are exposed to a wide variety of skills and experiences that include hands-on training in successful communication, information and digital literacy, global citizenship, the use of art and creativity for problem-solving, exposure to 3D printing as well as a range of technology relevant to Industry 4.0. A dual focus on the formal curriculum together with digital, social and behavioural skills complete our mandate here.
This is right at the heart of our employability agenda and is fundamentally central to the contributions from the Honoris Academic Council. Empirically and anecdotally we know this – for example, major players, such as Ernst & Young, are removing degree classifications from their entry requirements. This transforms recruitment and opens up opportunities for many more talented people. We will be a partner in that transformation.
Honoris Certificate
Honoris 21st Century Skills Certificate is an online program to skill up graduates for the future world of work. It has been designed to further enhance the employability of its students by equipping them with the most in-demand soft and digital skills required to thrive and be competitive in the 21st century world of work.
Based on global researches and engagement with employers across the continent, the Honoris 21st Century Skills Certificate has been developed by the Honoris Academic Council, a pan-African team of faculty representatives with exemplary backgrounds and academic experience. Chosen for their unmatched expertise in their fields, including online learning and digital technology, the Council’s work is an important investment in the development of world-class human talent: agile, collaborative professionals with an entrepreneurial mindset able to transform and impact Africa.
The Honoris 21st Century Skills Certificate delivers skills training in areas highlighted by industry analysts and by the demands of the fourth industrial revolution (4IR), ensuring that graduates enter the world of work empowered with high cognitive skills and digital literacy competencies that are necessary to navigate our changing world.
The online program will train students in the eight most in-demand skills by employers and for the future of work: behavioral intelligence, creativity and design thinking, critical thinking, communication, collaboration, coding, data analytics and entrepreneurship. These skills, which serve as a driving force for the 4IR, ensure that Honoris graduates keep up with the dynamics of the labor market.
The 100-hour program is being deployed to all students across the network. It constitutes a four-module design including personal, social, digital, and entrepreneurship skills which will be embedded in Honoris member institutions’ curricula.
Honoris 21st Century Skills Certificate will be issued through blockchain technology by virtue of a partnership with BCdiploma. This will provide each graduate with a unique URL that makes it possible to share their verifiable and tamper-proof diplomas digitally.
This certificate, powered by the Honoris Online Academy, demonstrates the network’s ongoing commitment to providing student-centric learning environments, designed by combining academic knowledge with entrepreneurial and workplace skills and credentials, to ensure graduates are equipped with the digital know-how and hybrid skills to meet the needs of the changing job market.