South Africa

Mancosa

MANCOSA is a private higher education institution registered in terms of the Higher Education Act. It was established in 1995, as a post-apartheid empowerment institution offering affordable and accessible management education primarily to persons previously denied access to postgraduate education.

MANCOSA is one of the leading providers of management education programs delivered through supported distance learning in Southern Africa. MANCOSA has in excess of 18,000 students currently enrolled on its programs.

What does education for impact mean to MANCOSA?

Mohamed Goga, Managing Director of MANCOSA, answers:
“Education for impact means providing access to high quality education, impacting the lives of all Africans. It has evolved beyond merely providing opportunities to study, to ensuring graduate success not only in the local but also international labor markets. Education for impact is consistent with the vision of MANCOSA, which is ‘Education for a better world for all’. MANCOSA has an explicit commitment to people, opportunity, and quality, through flexible, affordable, accredited and accessible education in an economy which is in desperate need for skilled individuals.”

Student Lifecycle

At MANCOSA, a strong emphasis is placed on the application of theory to practice to ensure that learning is applied to real-life work situations during one's study. This student experience is designed to inject value through the learning process since this approach allows a student to be reflective and adaptive. The MANCOSA student life-cycle is well-founded and structured, and provides students with specially designed support resources from enrollment to graduation and beyond. A distinct characteristic of the typical MANCOSA student is the facet of constantly seeking out learning and development opportunities. This, we believe, is the enculturation of life-long learning in our student population.

enrollment

  • Students are attracted from across the country and the African continent, predominantly through word of mouth by MANCOSA’s growing community of alumni. In addition, MANCOSA has built a strong relationship with industry which results in employers promoting MANCOSA’s educational offerings to their own staff whenever further education is considered
  • The majority of MANCOSA students are working adults. MANCOSA aims to provide high quality programs at a reasonable cost, supported by flexible payment plans
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LEARNING EXPERIENCE

  • MANCOSA’s pedagogy is underpinned by a distance learning teaching and learning foundation, which allows a blended approach of face-to-face and online learning. The approach and delivery model is informed by its student market, which is that of working adults and school leavers who are geographically dispersed in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) regions
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EMPLOYABILITY

  • MANCOSA’s Employability Unit provides valuable resources, webinars, and programs to support career advancement and assists students and alumni in securing employment, improving employability positioning and rendering an alumni more competitive in the 21st century labour market
  • Students and alumni have access to the online MANCOSA Career Center where students and alumni can network, apply for jobs, and have access to attend soft skills sessions, start-up workshops, and speaker series. The Career Center also provides access to informal mentorship which matches mentees with relevant mentors based on specific needs
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ALUMNI RELATIONS

  • Through the Career Center, MANCOSA is able to track alumni success throughout their career journey
  • The launch of MANCOSA Community (powered by Graduway) is a cloud-based alumni networking platform that allows institutions to register using their Facebook and LinkedIn accounts and leverages the power of social media. The platform serves for alumni and eligible graduates to connect and engage with MANCOSA

THE IMPACT MANCOSA IS MAKING ACROSS THE 5 PILLARS OF THE HONORIS IMPACT FRAMEWORK

Pillars of Honoris Impact Framework
MANCOSA Impact

Network: the power of regional and global collaboration through institutions and partnerships and the positive impact.

  • MANCOSA collaborates with organizations and professional bodies to understand sectoral and organizational skills development needs and then works on customising education solutions to meet these needs. This collaborative approach to education product design ensures a fit for purpose solution which is high in impact
  • In strengthening ties between education communities, MANCOSA has developed a partnership with a leading University in Russia, Novosibirsk State University of Economics and Management (NSUEM), which offers diversity and international exposure to staff and students

Learning: quality education and developing world-class African human talent with an entrepreneurial mindset and 21st century skills to thrive in the globally disrupted world of work

  • As a modern institution of higher learning, MANCOSA aims to design, develop and deliver education, for a better world for all. Towards this end, MANCOSA aims to address some of the critical skills shortages across a number of industries and fields. Notwithstanding the institution’s long-standing contributions to the fields of business, management and administration, MANCOSA also plays a critical role in the development of 21st century teachers and educators. MANCOSA continually establishes new and creative ways of bringing technology into the classroom and ensures the professional development of their teachers is aligned with 21st century strategies through the MANCOSA School of Education and iTeach Lab. In addition, the institution’s School of Information and Digital Technology contributes to the digital literacy, capacity and skill-set of its student population, thus ensuring that graduates are suitably able to contribute to the digital economy
  • Through the increased number of partnerships and strong relationships within the industry over the last 5 years, MANCOSA has developed additional capacity to enable the delivery of over 53 academic programs
  • MANCOSA (PTY) Limited trading as the Management College of Southern Africa, is registered with the South African DHET as a Private Higher Education Institution (PHEI). All its programmes are accredited by the Higher Education Quality Committee (HEQC) of the Council on Higher Education (CHE), an independent statutory body that quality assures all programmes offered by higher education providers in South Africa. Each programme is recorded on the National Qualifications Framework (NQF) by the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA)

Innovation: education must continuously evolve to meet the challenges of the fast-changing and unpredictable globalized world.

  • MANCOSA takes pride in its futuristic School of Information and Digital Technology (SIDT), which intends to create fit-for-purpose, modern learning and skilling opportunities to individuals across sectors and industries which will provide them with a competitive advantage in the 4IR and digital economy
  • MANCOSA keeps abreast of technological advancements to future-proof student success. This has led to two innovations: (1) The digitization of academic credentials: The blockchain-based diploma certification service is a way to tackle the scourge of fake qualifications, while protecting brand reputation; and (2) MANCOSA skillME: An online platform delivering a world-class, modern, micro-learning experience. The platform offers 100%, self-paced, short learning programs all geared to prepare students to rapidly up-skill themselves for the 21st century business environment
  • MANCOSA’s Center for Innovation, is the central hub driving the metamorphosis of education creation, education construction and education delivery, which is fit-for-purpose, for the 21st century

Employability: commitment to enhancing employability of graduates.

  • The MANCOSA Community online platform is utilized to run a host of employability webinars
  • To further the prospects of employability, MANCOSA participated in the Honoris pilot virtual internships program, placing 34 students with international host companies focusing on a range of activities aligned to critical workplace skills
  • New courses are designed and developed based on market demands and needs. There is ongoing engagement with external stakeholders to ensure that programs are aligned to industry requirements

Communities: delivering a positive social impact in local communities.

  • MANCOSA’s involvement with the community has mutual benefits: the institution sharpens its understanding of community challenges whilst the community benefits from the interventions aimed at understanding and addressing those challenges. The ultimate goal is to integrate these interactions with the institution’s core business of teaching and research
  • The Social Purpose Initiatives Committee (SPIC) is created in terms of MANCOSA’s internal strategy. It serves to provide meaningful leadership where the welfare of society is concerned. The SPIC projects have the following characteristics: (1) aligned with one or more UN Sustainable Development Goals, (2) have external partners/stakeholders, and (3) make social impact. Examples of such projects are:
    • The Infinity Green Project: focuses on developing and enhancing knowledge and essential skills for participants who cultivate community gardens to sustain livelihoods and the environment. This project promotes environmentally responsible behavior, self-empowerment through entrepreneurship (from selling the crops that are grown)
    • The MANCOSA Million Books Project aims to improve literacy and further education among the youth by providing books to school children across South Africa (through mobile libraries)
    • The MANCOSA Center for Women in Leadership (CWIL): strives to create an enabling environment for the promotion of women leadership roles
MANCOSA proudly presents their affiliations and partnerships:

Dr Claudine Hingston: +3 years of service, MANCOSA

“I hold two portfolios at MANCOSA, that of an academic and the head of MANCOSA’s Center for Women Leadership. I have developed a lot of new skills at MANCOSA and have also grown in my career. MANCOSA offers ongoing quality training to its staff and this has helped in developing the professionalism and competency of every staff in their line of work. Moreover, MANCOSA embraces diversity, which is exhibited in MANCOSA’s diverse workforce. MANCOSA is also committed to gender equality and women’s empowerment in the workplace.

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Samuel Baloyi

“My journey with MANCOSA has been amazing. The MBA program is world class and has opened great avenues for me. The program is so diverse and allows one to gain knowledge in various spheres in marketplace. Being a hands-on Dad and still fulfilling my role as an Engineering Manager was challenging, however the lecturers and facilitators made the journey worthwhile. I would recommend the MANCOSA MBA program to anyone who wants to lead in the corporate world. Thank you MANCOSA for the journey with you which has produced great networking platforms and success for my future”.