Learning in the Knowledge Economy

December 3, 2009 - An innovative collaboration between GSE and Wharton reaches halfway around the globe.

"Reducing poverty makes good business sense," says Amadou Diop.

"As an African who has been blessed to live abroad, learn, and acquire so much knowledge and experience," he continues, "it is a moral imperative to go back and share it with the rest of our people."

The executive vice president of Netsure Telecom, Diop is also a student in the Executive Program in Work-Based Learning Leadership offered by Penn GSE and The Wharton School.

Diop is spearheading a project aimed at closing the so-called digital divide in Africa and, in the process, increasing access to education and healthcare throughout the continent. For Diop, Penn's executive program for corporate learning officers (CLOs) was the perfect place to master the skills and make the professional connections he'll need to achieve his ambitious goal.

At its heart, the GSE/Wharton CLO program is about understanding that a culture of learning is essential to the success of any enterprise.

That vision matched up beautifully with Diop's — except that, in his case, the enterprise in question was a little larger than a single corporate entity. His goal is to forge a public-private partnership to build a continent-wide satellite-based infrastructure to provide e-learning and telemedicine support to Africa.

"Through the use of technology," he explains, "we can increase the number of virtual classrooms per city, per village, and connect more educational institutions in Africa to the world."

Diop's goal is a daunting one. But precisely because the continent is the least-connected in the world, the promise of a largely untapped market is enormous. As Diop explains, "In 2012, the broadband access market for sub-Saharan Africa is projected to be $6.1 billion, but by 2016 demand will more than double." That kind of growth rate presents a tempting opportunity for private investors and innovative public-private partnerships. To underscore his point, Diop points to the success of mobile telephony in Africa — the fastest-growing system in the world.

"Business is the engine of growth and sustainable development, and innovative business leaders are expanding beyond traditional business practices to focus on the need of those locked out of the global market, bringing them in as partners in growth and wealth creation."

For Diop, the CLO program provides a rich mix of expert knowledge — and professional networks. "The knowledge I am acquiring is immediately applicable to my workplace," he says. "I've already conducted a learning needs assessment, and I have also acquired new quantitative and qualitative evidence-gathering tools to support a strategic corporate learning and development function."

The brainchild of Penn GSE Vice Dean Doug Lynch, the CLO program provides corporate executives with the skills to ensure successful workplace learning — often the only opportunity adults have to develop new knowledge. Recognizing the realities of professional life, the program is organized in discrete course blocks. Students can earn Wharton certificates for each block or pursue a GSE master's or doctoral degree.

"In a knowledge economy, what could be more important than developing people?" asks Lynch. To improve learning within the workplace, enterprises will need skilled learning leaders. "What is now necessary within the workplace is to do more with fewer resources," says Lynch. "This is fundamentally a learning challenge."

Given the scope, size, and important social and economic development aspects of Amadou Diop’s project, he recognizes that the ability to connect with skilled e-learning professionals and program developers will play a significant role in successfully connecting Africa. To that end, he has already begun employing the professional contacts he has made in the program.

While the new contacts he has made in the program are invaluable to Diop, it's the new skills he has learned that now underpin his confidence to effect change within his organization and, in turn, to effect change in Africa. "It's been one of the most exciting, pragmatic, and usable academic experiences of my life."