UCT's Graduate School of Business (GSB) now has a Johannesburg office, opened recently at the Nelson Mandela Square in Sandton.

The school will run a number of its most popular executive short courses from there. These premises will also serve as a base for alumni in the region as well as GSB faculty visiting the city.

The development will make it easier for individuals there to get away from work and home to brush up on their skills. GSB director Professor Frank Horwitz said it was an important initiative as many of the courses would offer elements new to the Johannesburg business community.

"Most of these courses have a successful track record in the school's regional market, but there will also be one or two brand new courses on offer."

Horwitz said the new office was part of an expansion within southern Africa as well as into Africa, as evident in the GSB's recent partnership win Kenya.

More news from the GSB is that Professor Dave Kaplan has been appointed chief economist at the Western Cape Department of Economic Development and Tourism (DEDT).

Kaplan, a professor in the School of Economics, is the Allan Gray Professor of Business-Government Relations at the GSB. Kaplan has worked closely with the DEDT over the past year.

A former chief economist at the Department of Trade and Industry, Kaplan said the evidence of high rates of output growth in the province, is in line with the national trend.

"However, job creation across the spread of the provincial economy is a key area that needs attention."

He added that current growth favoured those already in employment as well as those who had skills, property and wealth.