![\"2ed969fc-be2b-4625-90d9-64c543892e40\"](\"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/2ed969fc-be2b-4625-90d9-64c543892e40.jpg\")
<\/p>\nBy the time Sofonias Negussie, 20, decided to submit an application to join the inaugural class of the African Leadership University at its flagship campus in Mauritius, he was underwhelmed by the year he had just completed at a university in South Africa.<\/p>\n
Several countries north, in Narok, a town flanking the edges of Kenya\u2019s Maasai Mara, Sofia Seketo, 21, felt the same at the university where she was studying towards a degree in Environmental Studies.<\/p>\n
Today, both of them are relishing the new and engaging intellectual environment that the education at ALU is offering them.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThey want us to display our ability to clearly put out our thoughts. We are encouraged to explore a lot fields, from education to history,\u201d says Seketo.<\/p>\n
For Negussie, the model that drives education at ALU opens the world to them in new, unexpected ways.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor someone used to traditional university systems, you are expected to engage a lot in class. There\u2019s a lot of student ownership. We design our own experiences so in many ways the university is a simulation of what to expect when we graduate.\u201d<\/p>\n
Built to counteract the shortfalls in prevailing models of higher education on the continent in addressing issues around the employability and entrepreneurship among young people, the learning model at ALU seeks to create highly productive, dynamic employees who can add tremendous value to local companies.<\/p>\n
At the same time, the learning model is constructed to instill a culture of entrepreneurial thinking among students to position their outlook towards finding solutions for some the pertinent , and uniquely African, challenges.<\/p>\n
Teaching at ALU encompasses teaching models that make experiential learning possible.<\/p>\n
At the heart of academic courses is the Best-Practice Learning Model, a four-stage learning cycle that helps students comprehend then internalise learning objectives.<\/p>\n
This process allows students to iterate knowledge formation by understanding where their gaps lie allowing them to fill them at their own pace. They are given ample opportunity to share their lessons, peppered with personal inferences, with peers in both formal and informal settings.<\/p>\n
All students have access to world-class content, provided virtually through a purpose-built e-learning portal. Assignments are framed as corporate projects with strict deadlines inclusive of complex multi-faceted tasks.<\/p>\n
In their first year, all degree candidates, regardless of concentration or specialisation, must complete a foundation year known as Foundational Core.<\/p>\n
This year is the bedrock of the ALU experience and focuses on harnessing 7 critical meta-skills that any leader needs to be successful.\u00a0 This includes critical thinking, communicating for impact, quantitative analysis, leadership entrepreneurship and African studies among others.<\/p>\n
![\"9e708554-0486-43c5-8551-f599e8437186\"](\"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/9e708554-0486-43c5-8551-f599e8437186.jpg\")
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\u201cThis is a tried and tested formula for training capable leaders,\u201d says Fred Swaniker, CEO and Founder of ALU. \u201cWe identify young people with true potential for leadership and we given them with the tools, skills and environment to practise what they learn. This is at the heart of our learning model.\u201d<\/p>\n
In ALU, Swaniker is expanding the ideals the African Leadership Academy, the celebrated high school he founded for developing the next generation of African leaders in Johannesburg.<\/p>\n
ALU, however, will have a much broader reach. In the next 5 decades, it hopes to have graduated 3 million leaders African leaders through a network of 25 campuses across the continent holding at least 10,000 students each.<\/p>\n
At first glance this might seem like audacious ambition. However, as the experiences of early students like Negussie and Seketo show, the revolution is already underway.<\/p>\n
–<\/p>\n
By:\u00a0Marie Shabaya<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By the time Sofonias Negussie, 20, decided to submit an application to join the inaugural class of the African Leadership University at its flagship campus in Mauritius, he was underwhelmed by the year he had just completed at a university in South Africa. Several countries north, in Narok, a town flanking the edges of Kenya\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":208717,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[374],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n