Last year the Brazilian edition of the Global Management Challenge focused on student teams. For Marcelo Egéa, local organizer of this challenge, this is because Brazil has a large young population with educational deficiencies in the managerial component.
In 2014 around 700 people tool part, spread over 185 teams participating in the Global Management Challenge in Brazil. About 250 universities and higher education and technology institutes contributed with undergraduates to the student teams, which easily outnumbered those made up of executives. “Brazil is a country with a huge young population and it is a major challenge to train them. Most young people of tertiary education age do not have access to them. In addition, management learning has not reached major training areas, such as engineering and so I think our decision to focus the competition on teams of students, makes sense”, says Marcelo Egéa. The organizer believes that since the very beginning the Global Management Challenge has been contributing to the spread of management learning among universities, encouraging them to acquire practical experience.
And to further stimulate practical training, the Brazilian organization has partnered with the Polytechnic School of the University of São Paulo. “We will run a pilot initiative as an academic tool for third year students. The teacher responsible is an enthusiastic competitor who participated as a student and never forgot this experience. It is recognition of the quality of GMC and demonstrates its potential for world class management education”, says Marcelo Egéa.
