The growing concerns over unemployment, unskilled graduates, and the increasing impacts of climate change on society and developing economies across the world reinforces the need for skilled graduates with entrepreneurial skills, innovation and better understanding of the agribusiness sector and analysis of its value chain to find solutions to the existing challenges. Thus, academic programs that provide professional competencies and skills to graduates for harnessing and prospering within the context of climate change become more relevant. Bugema University (BU) in collaboration with Makerere University (MAK); Malawi University of Science and Technology (MUST); Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (LUANAR) and the Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM) are implementing the “Climate-Smart Agropreneurship Education for Livelihood and Sustainability in Eastern and Southern Africa†project, with funding from the Erasmus+ Program of the European Union. Under the AgrGROW project1* 2 and with technical support from Häme University of Applied Sciences (HAMK) in Finland and the University of Copenhagen (UCPH) in Denmark, Bugema University is now in the final stages of developing a “new†Master of Science programme in Agribusiness Innovation and Management (SAG). The SAG program will produce highly skilled and professionally competent graduates in agribusiness who can effectively identify, create, innovate and manage sustainable agri-enterprises to enhance job creation and promote sustainable socio-economic growth. This competence-based program will enable graduates to acquire the muchneeded professional competencies of the 21st century for harnessing and prospering within the context of climate change impacts. The program will use tailored courses delivered through a competence-based curriculum (CBC) with well-planned Problem-Based Learning (PBL) approaches to enable graduates acquire the soft and hard skills required in today’s job market. The SAG graduates are expected to demonstrate competence in the mastery of agribusiness, agricultural economics, sustainability and management approaches with a high degree of autonomy, innovation and creativity in the application of knowledge, skills and practice in a diversity of environmental settings. Career opportunities The graduates will compete with advantage for opportunities as agribusiness managers, entrepreneurs, economists, agricultural policy analysts, agribusiness and development experts, academicians or to pursue further education and training in economics, agribusiness, management, finance and entrepreneurship.
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