Abstract:

In the current knowledge economy, there has been a paradigm shift in managers’ focus from over-reliance on physical and structural capital to social and human capital as the most important resources for enhancing organizational value. While focusing on human capital, knowledge has been identified as a fundamental resource for achieving and sustaining competitiveness in the global business economy. Therefore, knowledge-based activities, such as knowledge creation, acquisition, management and transfer/sharing, are prominent themes in the present knowledge economy. Higher institutions, and their graduates, play a critical role in creating and charting the path to innovative ways of applying new and existing knowledge. However, current events show that graduate employability is fast falling in Nigeria and other African countries. The cause of this continuous decline in graduate employability largely rests on existing gaps between what the students are being taught in the higher institutions and what is obtainable in the place of work. Existing studies show that the current business education curriculum is insufficient to prepare graduates for employability. Neither builds in them the required knowledge, skills, and other characteristics that enable them to fit into the present knowledge-driven business economy. The focus of this paper is to investigate Africa’s business education in the knowledge economy and to establish implications for higher education institutions in Africa. Through an extensive review of the literature, this study explores the essential factors, design models and institutional supports that can achieve a business education curriculum that will build the right skill set in students, especially in the current knowledge-based economy. The study concludes that institutional innovation culture, knowledge creation and transfer, motivating knowledge sharing and dynamic teaching models are essential to developing a business education curriculum that reflects the present knowledge economy and builds the right work-related skill set in African students.

Keywords:

Business education, Business education curriculum, Knowledge economy, Higher education institutions, Education in Africa.