Today, junior manager. And tomorrow,
South African business leader.

The NEF, Agence Française de Développement (AFD) and the Chamber of Commerce & Industry of Paris (CCIP) have partnered to offer South African junior managers the exceptional opportunity of a six-week Training Programme in France. This opportunity has arisen as a result of a Declaration of Cooperation on JIPSA signed between the French and South African Governments in 2008. JIPSA is the Joint Initiative on Priority Skills Acquisition. It is a high-level joint initiative between the South African Government, business and labour to identify solutions to skill shortages in critical areas of the South African economy. By virtue of the Declaration of Cooperation and the support pledged therein by the French Government through its designated agencies, along with the NEF as the South African partner and implementation arm of the South African Government, this JIPSA Junior Manager Development Programme will directly benefit 100 South African junior managers. Indirectly however, this Programme will also benefit the sectors from which the participants have been selected and ultimately the economy as a whole, in its contribution to addressing the skills shortage we face. Participants will be drawn from sectors that have been prioritised for skills development: • Local Government • Energy • Infrastructure • Finance • Information and Communication Technology (ICT) • Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) • Aerospace • Agro-processing • Other (limited to 10% of total number of participants) The full complement of selected participants shall be representative of the demographics of South Africa and also representative of our 9 provinces. Furthermore, candidates eligible for selection should: • hold at least a bachelor’s degree; • be between 25 and 40 years of age; • possess professional managerial experience of at least 3 years (however, this does not exclude professionals from applying who have not yet held a managerial position, but who show potential as future leaders). The Programme includes a two-week training seminar hosted by CCIP-associated business schools in Paris. It will aim to reinforce managerial skills, negotiation strategy, team building and dynamics, as well as facilitate the managers’ integration into their host companies by providing them with tools so they can understand the French and European context. This training seminar will then be followed by a four-week internship at a French host company, specific to the sector the manager has been selected from. Further to better equip the participants for this experience, over and above the 2-day course of introductory French that the participants will attend during their training seminar, the NEF will also sponsor a three-day introductory French language course immediately prior to the participants’ departure for France. The Programme will run over a two-year period, with 40 managers being selected to participate in 2010 and another 60 managers in 2011. Should you be interested in applying to be selected for participation in this Programme, please contact Emma Riley on rileye@nefcorp.co.za. Please note that the application deadline is 7 April 2010. CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE APPLICATION FORM CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE INFORMATION ABOVE