As the world’s interest focused on the Ebola crisis in parts of Western Africa, Francis Dawoh, Director of Procurement for National Pharmaceutical Procurement Unit for the Government of the Republic of Sierra Leone, took an active role in the management of the epidemic. Francis enrolled on to Management Development Centre’s (MDC) MSc Procurement programme in October 2013. During his studies the country declared that they were experiencing an Ebola virus epidemic (May 2014). Francis had direct involvement in controlling the outbreak, with his main duties being responsible for the procurement, storage, distribution and management of drugs and medical supplies, for and on behalf of all public health facilities throughout Sierra Leone. 

Francis managed to co-ordinate studying for his Masters degree and maintaining his senior position at this critical time due to the study methods employed by MDC’s programme. This meant that he only needed to travel to the UK for two residential weekends and the rest of the programme was completed in his own time: ‘I feel that studying in this way allowed me to remain in employment and kept disruptions to my family life to a minimum, which wouldn’t have been the case if I was to have studied a conventional Masters Programme. It gave me the opportunity to turn my experience into an academic reality. I had always had the urge to get a much higher education to complement my experience in procurement.’ Francis has recently submitted his dissertation on: The Concept of Beneficiary Dependency on Humanitarian Aid Supply Chain and is due to graduate from University of South Wales in July this year with an MSc Procurement. 

MDC Ltd is a collaborative partner of University of South Wales offering top-up MSc Procurement and MSc Management qualifications to full CILT members with five years’ managerial experience. 

To find out whether you could take advantage of the exemptions available, website: www.procurementmasters.co.uk