Business management consultancy LRMG’s academic learning innovation arm DigitalCampus has partnered with Rhodes Business School to provide high-impact and occupationally relevant learning experiences that address the dynamic needs of African businesses and professionals.

This addition expands DigitalCampus’s academic network, which already includes institutions such as the University of the Witwatersrand, the Gordon Institute of Business Science and international partner Emeritus, which brings greater breadth and depth to LRMG’s learning architecture.

This new partnership will leverage each entity’s strengths: DigitalCampus for its integrated learning solutions that close the skills, visibility, inspiration and agility gaps in the workforce and the Rhodes Business School for its emphasis on ethical leadership and sustainability in business education.

Together, the two entities will co-create a portfolio of occupationally relevant short courses and business-driven learning solutions designed to equip learners with practical, future-fit capabilities aligned to real-world challenges.

These offerings will support organisations across sectors as they build resilient, agile workforces prepared for the rapid changes of the modern business landscape.

"Rhodes Business School’s philosophy of leadership for sustainability and stewardship strongly aligns with our workforce-readiness mission," says LRMG South Africa commercial strategy and partner management head Justin Markgraaff.

He adds that the partnership allows the entities to further serve the continent by connecting both early-career professionals and seasoned leaders to learning that is academically credible, contextually relevant and commercially impactful – all while driving measurable business outcomes.

The collaboration will span a range of initiatives from open enrolment short courses to customised integrated learning solutions, with particular emphasis on Category B-aligned learning programmes that deliver measurable business and transformation value.

Rhodes Business School education coordinator Evert Knoesen says executive education and short-learning programmes provide not only an avenue to improve the sustainability of public institutions through private income but, importantly, provide social justice and equity by delivering opportunities to those who are not able to access university education due to social circumstances.

In reflecting more broadly on the partnership, Rhodes Business School's Professor Owen Skae says the school prepares leaders to thrive in a world of paradox, where growth must coexist with responsibility, innovation with ethics and individual ambition with collective purpose.

“Our partnership with DigitalCampus and LRMG is a powerful expression of this philosophy. It brings together academia and business to create learning experiences that are relevant, applied and purposeful.

“Through this collaboration, we are extending the reach of our three pillars, namely integrative thinking, principled leadership and engaged citizenship – beyond the university into organisations and communities across Africa,” Skae explains.

He further says the partnership between the entities helps translate Rhodes Business School’s commitment to “leadership for sustainability” into action, particularly by equipping people with the mindset and skills to make better decisions that balance economic interests with ethics, ecology and equity.

“Together, we’re building pathways for learning that turn paradox into possibility and purpose into progress,” Skae concludes.