What we believe
RocketSchool believes that entrepreneurship is about unlocking, nurturing and growing human potential. The pursuit of this ideal is a journey of discovery that takes us into ourselves, connects with our context and community, and the world. We get to serve productively and to develop a future in which everyone participates in order to flourish and realise our greatest ambitions.
We invite you to be part of this journey with us.
RocketSchool Mission: Entrepreneurship with meaning
RocketSchool is an innovative and radical departure from the traditional orthodoxy of entrepreneurship training, education and development. Many endeavours and initiatives that purport to support and develop entrepreneurs and small growing businesses begin by seeing small scale businesses as 'small-big businesses', using and applying theory, practices and models that are better suited to large established firms. This approach largely ignores the creative and managerial uniqueness that typifies the entrepreneurial venture. Coupled with this is the contextual dissonance in applying approaches and theories in a developing African context that have been taken wholesale from the North. RocketSchool has been borne out of these challenges and opportunities - to originate, create and implement a school for entrepreneurs and small growing businesses that is contextually relevant, built around the core principles that engages the entrepreneur in a manner that creates meaning, builds broad value, and acknowledges and validates the knowledge, resources and talents that exist in all of us and in our communities.
RocketSchool reimagines how entrepreneurship training and education is best initiated, curated, undertaken and realised. The RocketSchool model is built on the foundation of microlearning and implemented through a blended approach - mobile and online.
Want to know more about microlearning?
Cool!
An emerging trend, and the foundation of the RocketSchool model, is that of microlearning. Micro learning 'thin slices' content into easily understood and applied knowledge that is contextually relevant and, more importantly, reduces the effects of cognitive load - a phenomenon most acutely seen among entrepreneurs with a deficit in prior learning experience. While micro learning (sometimes also called nano learning) is not a new concept, its application to the field of entrepreneurship is now taking root. Microlearning is learning in small bursts … on demand … in the moment it is needed and when it is useful. Traditionally no piece of microlearning content takes longer than twenty minutes with which to engage, understand and apply.
Meet the Rocket Scientist
RocketSchool is the brain-child of Dr Jonathan Marks, accomplished entrepreneur, entrepreneurship educator and business school academic. Jonathan holds an MBA and a PhD from the University of Cape Town and is responsible for the entrepreneurship track on the MBA programme at the University of Pretoria's Gordon Institute of Business Science in Johannesburg, South Africa. Jonathan was founding director of the Raymond Ackerman Academy of Entrepreneurship at the University of Cape Town's Graduate School of Business, and was responsible for curriculum design and development at the Allan Gray Orbis Foundation. Jonathan has consulted to a wide range of organisations in the area of entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial training, education and development, including The World Bank Institute, Free University Amsterdam, AFDA Film School, Western Cape Provincial Government, and numerous start-up ventures. Jonathan has a great way of engaging, and brings proven leadership skills and abilities as a former Special Forces officer, youth leader and community leader. You’ll like Jonathan, who is waiting to welcome you aboard.