A lifetime of expertise shouldn't retire with you. Yet most corporate wisdom fades just as the next generation needs it most. Universities now invite professionals to teach—but knowing a subject isn't knowing how to teach it. True impact requires transforming experience into teachable legacy. That’s where pedagogy bridges the gap between career mastery and educating future solvers.

We spend trillions and debate endless reforms, yet we've stopped asking education's most fundamental question: What is it actually for? If the answer has quietly become "economic sorting," we shouldn't be surprised by student anxiety and societal fracture. What if we reclaimed education's true purpose: to shape how we think about ourselves, our world, and our responsibility to make it better?

Why do over a third of Africa’s brightest students in the UK study Business—yet often struggle to apply their knowledge back home? This isn't just a career choice; it's a systemic mismatch. We’re educating a generation with world-class tools for economies that don’t yet exist in their own countries, turning "brain drain" into an almost inevitable outcome. What if their curriculum was co-designed by the African CEOs and entrepreneurs solving today's real challenges?

Africa's youth unemployment is not a crisis of potential, but a crisis of design. We are trying to fit a generation of dynamic, untamed energy into educational and economic systems built for another era. The path forward isn't to create more traditional jobs, but to unlock a new identity: transforming the "unemployed" into a distributed network of local problem-solvers and community architects.

Is education truly the key to development? The question isn't about the principle, but about the design. Africa produces brilliant minds, yet a crucial disconnect remains: a curriculum designed for global application, not local problem-solving. The true key to development lies not in more graduates, but in an "awakened curriculum"—one that forges creators of local sovereignty, not just executors of foreign models.

Building schools is not enough. Discover why investing in teacher training and support is the most powerful—and most overlooked—lever for transforming education in developing countries. A reflection on philanthropy with real impact.