Thamsanqa Maqubela

Thamsanqa Maqubela
TOPIC: Thamsanqa Maqubela
Maqubela cares about youth employment and entrepreneurship in Africa & the world. He is a renowned global advocate for student workplace training and is the founding President of the World Council for Graduates and President of the Africa Graduate Council since 2020. He is the former Chairman of the SA Council of Graduates. He represented the SACGRA at the 2018 Presidential Jobs Summit and presented solutions for youth employment. He served as the chairperson of the Presidential Youth Working Group to advise the President of South Africa on strategies to boost youth employment and entrepreneurship. He served as the board member and CEO of the South African Graduate Development Association. His dream of full employment for graduates in South Africa has propelled him to take the reigns at SAGDA, where he worked full time for 16 months with no salary, while growing the organizational revenue from high levels of indebtedness in 2010 to over R 80 million in 2013. He is a business turnaround specialist, an internationally recognized marketer and scholar with local and international awards in his field. Maqubela is a graduate of Vaal University of Technology; Charles Sturt University in Australia, and Korea Development Institute School of Public Policy & Management, MBA in Strategy & Global Management 2002. He is a recipient of the Global Ambassador Fellowship from South Korea. He has served higher education for 25 years as HoD International Relations (VUT 1996 – 2003); CEO, UNITECH (MACE 2003 – 2006) and Chairman, Qhubela Holdings (2006 – current) and founding President of African Council for Graduates.