NMMU Business School Postgraduate Diploma Programme to empower Graduates

Port Elizabeth – NMMU Business School announced this week that it has developed and received approval from the Higher Education Council for a new programme, the Postgraduate Diploma in Business Administration (PDBA). The programme was launched to internal stakeholders of the university, including NMMU faculties, student counseling, marketing and corporate relations as well as the student representative council (SRC).

Students who have or those in the process of completing their bachelor degrees can now look forward to empowering themselves with an additional skills-set to be more competitive in and attractive for the workplace. They will be able to attain practical business and leadership skills, fast-track their career growth or become self-starter entrepreneurs.

The programme is designed to develop a broad and deep understanding of business concepts with practical applications. The programme structure and modules include strategy, human resource strategy, management economics, marketing management, operations management, entrepreneurship, financial management and integrated management practice. The programme will be presented on a full-time basis in 2013 at NMMU Business School in Port Elizabeth.

Commenting on the launch of the NMMU Business School PDBA, NMMU SRC president Yusuf Cassim said at the stakeholder briefing that his generation faces an uncertain future and that students pursuing the PDBA will empower themselves to weather the storm:

“The PDBA is an educational add-on qualification that aims to bring out the best of students who completed their undergraduate programmes in arts, education, engineering, law, science, IT, business and economic sciences.

“Our era is one of unimaginable crisis especially for my generation. Soaring youth unemployment and inequality is creating a ‘lost generation’ of young people who are at risk of debt, depression and self-loathing. One looks at local and international unemployment statistics which echoes this truth.

“In this regard, the SRC is especially pleased with the fact that the program includes a module on entrepreneurship – empowering us to become captains of our own destinies. This making us better equipped to deal with the reality of being without jobs – instead we will create them.”

“We believe that graduates are given a new and improved chance of being great and finding their ways faster and more fluently in the working world. The SRC is immensely proud of our business school.”

Prof Kobus Jonker, Director of the Graduate School explained, “The purpose of the programme is to provide students with broad-based theoretical and practical knowledge of business administration and its primary purpose is to prepare graduates from different academic disciplines to grasp and master the concept of business management.

“Upon completion, students will be able to demonstrate familiarity with management concepts and frameworks, apply conceptual and analytical frameworks to analyse problems, have an understanding of economic, social and political factors that affect business managers, identify procedures and monitor systems for organisations and practically demonstrate the ability to apply conceptual knowledge and practical skills in a specific work context.”

He added: “The PDBA was developed to articulate into the MBA as result of the future re-curriculation of the current MBA to fit the criteria of the new Higher Education Qualifications Framework.”

NMMU Postgraduate Diploma in Business Administration (PDBA) will be presented on a full-time basis from 2013. The admission requirement to the programme is a Bachelor’s degree or equivalent at NQF level 7. Applications closing date is 5 December 2012.