Done deal: (From left) Jenny Carter, marketing consultant at the GSB executive education unit; Professor Frank Horwitz, GSB director; Jonathan Plessner, senior consultant for business development at the University of Namibia; Prof Diane Ashton, capacity building and organisational development advisor at the University of Namibia; and Elaine Rumboll, director of the executive education unit.

The Graduate School of Business (GSB) will share its expertise with the University of Nambia over the next two years following a recent partnership deal.

To start, the GSB's executive education unit will take a hybrid of its successful New Managers Programme and tailor it to suit the needs of Namibian participants.

Leading the initiative from the University of Namibia are Professor Diane Ashton, capacity building and organisational development advisor, and Jonathan Plessner, senior consultant for business development.

"There is a tremendous potential for learning, not only for programme participants, but also for the course facilitators who will interact with their Southern African Development Community (SADC) peers," Ashton said.

Knowledge sharing would enable the universities to respond to the region's social and economic needs.

"The partnership will be one that opens new and interesting avenues for knowledge exchange," said Elaine Rumboll, director of the executive education unit.

First up is the Power Learning Programme for New Managers, scheduled to run in October at the University of Namibia, based on the GSB's entry-level management short programme.

"The vision at the University of Namibia is to develop a knowledge-based economy by 2030 and to achieve this we need a labour force that is strong at lower and middle management level. The Power Learning Programme can be a key to unlocking accelerated management development," Plessner said.

The executive education unit has been rated in the global top ten in the Economist Intelligence Unit's 2005 survey of short executive education programmes.

In 2005, the business school forged a similar co-operative initiative with the Kenya School of Professional Studies.