South African Airways strikes deal to facilitate study tours for KNUST students
South African Airways (SAA) has struck a partnership with West African Institute for Supply Chain Leadership (WAISCL) to facilitate study tours of selected post graduate students and lecturers of the Business School of Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Kumasi.
Under the agreement, SAA is positioned as the preferred carrier of annual industrial trips of MBA students of the university to South Africa and other countries in the sub-region, to foster human capital development and institutional growth in supply chain management.
WAISCL, which is facilitating the partnership, is a Supply Chain Management (SCM) focused on education, research and training unit within the KNUST Business School.
It is an exclusive partnership between KNUST and PanAvest Foundation, a private grant making institution.
“This is a unique win-win corporate social responsibility partnership to expose students to world class supply chain management practices on the continent,” said Gloria Akuffo Yirenkyi, Country Manager of SAA at the signing of the agreement in Accra.
“SAA is proud to be associated with this initiative to develop Ghana’s and the continent’s supply chain management related human capital to boost service quality and productivity standards.”
“We see this move as a unique platform for the growth of our airline,” she added.
The agreement followed the successful maiden industrial trip, during which 25 KNUST MBA students toured some world acclaimed companies in South Africa in June this year, to acquaint themselves with best practices in the logistics and supply chain management spheres.
Dr Douglas Boateng, President and Chief Executive Officer of PanAvest Foundation, said the idea of exposing students to foreign companies was based on experiences in Europe and elsewhere, where their successes had been achieved due to efficient supply chain management practices.
He said that South Africa in the past 15 years had taken over as the supply chain hub in the Sub-region, with relative ease of moving products from SADC and into other parts on the continent.
Dr Boateng said with the study tours to South Africa, Ghanaian students would help place the country competitively for foreign investment, adding, “If we learn from South Africa, it would bring development to our country and other parts of Africa.”
He said WAISCL was creating a platform for Africans to learn from each other to improve the human capital in supply chain management in the Sub-region.
Dr Boateng explained that WAISDCL chose SAA as preferred partner because of the company’s open mindedness, expressing optimism that the carrier would be able to facilitate study tours of students of other learning institutions to South Africa.
He said WAISCL was expecting more students to join the South African study tours in 2012.
South African High Commissioner to Ghana, Ms Jeanette Ndhlovu, commended the partnership touting it as the first of its kind between the two countries and Sub-regions.
“The agreement would “strategically” boost the relationship between South Africa and Ghana,” she added.
Currently, WAISCL being the first of its kind in the Sub-region hopes to establish international partnerships with both industry and academia to enable it provide cutting edge research relevant to industry as well as provide world class training solutions and executive education.
WAISCL hopes to become the leading SCM education and training partner of choice for selected organisations and the most relevant supply chain education and training partner in Western Africa.
It is a profit driven executive education and training services unit that will be wholly owned by KNUST School of Business.
Source: GNA