Currently we are working in South Africa and Ghana and are exploring further countries in Africa. We plan to take to take the Business Bridge programme to countries all around the world, both developed and developing, wherever there is a need for improved business education provision. We envisage Business Bridge courses being taken by hundreds of thousands of people each year around the globe.
Our first phase of development is within Africa where there is strong demand for our programme and where we have strong networks. At the same time we are working hard to take Business Bridge to Asia, South America or any country that requires our services.
Business Bridge courses can be taken in English, Spanish, Chinese or any other language. Our courses are explicitly designed to be easily transferable across languages and countries.
We recognise that business works differently in each location: what works in a bazaar in Egypt may not be right for a wet market in Malaysia or the ICT sector in Brazil. As such, localisation is crucial and this is where our tutors play a key role. Our tutors are immersed in the business culture of their home countries and are able to take our universally relevant course frameworks and, using personal experience, make them relevant to the local context.
Business Bridge takes social impact very seriously and looks at a broad range of socio-economic factors that together reflect the impact of our programme on our graduates' businesses, allowing us to improve our courses over time. Impact Assesment reports are available in our news section.
Our tutors are local business school alumni and other professionals from the countries we operate in and they work for us pro-bono.
Yes. There is strong demand from business school alumni and other professionals around the world to give back to their countries by leveraging their business skills and teaching. Moreover, the Business Bridge tutor experience is an extremely rewarding, manageable and enjoyable.
Time donate their time in 'course units'. Each unit entails a commitment of eight 3 hours teaching sessions over eight weeks. On top of this, there is a one day training programme that new tutors must attend.
Business Bridge is a not-for-profit charity. We plan to make surpluses in line with our goal of being a sustainable institution but these surpluses are reinvested in the form of student scholarships or expansion of Business Bridge, thereby making our courses accessible to more people around the world. Until we reach sustainability, Business Bridge will be financed through donations.
Our local partners decide the price charged to the students but Business Bridge provide a guideline price and set a maximum price in line with our aim of overcoming the cost barrier that often prevents those that need it accessing business education.
Whilst on-line learning is a crucial part of what we do there is growing evidence that on-line learning by itself does not work. It is crucial that students meet face-to-face with each other and with their tutors in order to make the educational experience as rich and rewarding as possible.
We have explored many accreditation options and have decided to accredit locally in each country we operate in. We are accredited in South Africa with the Services SETA and are in the process of gaining our Ghanaian accreditation following our successful 2010 pilot there.
We are looking for two types of partners:
Yes, we are deeply committed to empowering women through business. We aim to have equal representation of men and women on our courses. 48% of our graduates to date have been women.
Students: Please see http://www.thebusinessbridge.org/Curriculum for details of where our courses are offered.
Partners: Please email us at info@thebusinessbridge.org