The Stirling Centre for Strategic Learning and Innovation today launched the fourth cohort of its Certified Organisational Learning Professional (COLP) programme.

The new cohort brings together professionals from Egypt, Germany, Ghana, Lebanon, Pakistan, Portugal, Scotland, the United Arab Emirates, Vietnam and Kosovo.

COLP is the Stirling Centre's flagship qualification. It equips managers, HR and learning professionals, quality leaders and public servants to turn everyday experience into lasting organisational capability.

The programme draws on the Learning-Driven Organisation (LDO) Model, co-developed by Prof. Alaa Garad and Prof. Jeff Gold and published by Bloomsbury in 2021.

The cohort runs for eight weeks through a hybrid approach of online and on-site sessions, held twice a week for two hours each.

Participants work through practical tools that close real performance gaps, including benchmarking, feedback and listening systems, staff suggestion schemes and action learning sets. Each participant applies what they learn to a live challenge in their own organisation.

This year, the Stirling Centre is applying the international mix as a deliberate platform for participants to test ideas against the experiences of colleagues, where deep learning situations are engineered.

Prof. Alaa Garad, President and Founder of the Stirling Centre, said: “Every cohort teaches us something new, and this one will be no exception. When people from ten countries sit around the same table, they stop assuming their way is the only way.

"That moment of curiosity is where organisational learning begins. Our aim is simple: graduates who return to their organisations are able to help them learn faster than the world around them changes.”

Dr Donald Cog Senanu Agumenu, the African Director of the Stirling Centre for Strategic Learning & Innovation, observes that the fourth cohort is timely and strategic for business leaders and institutions in this current wave of artificial intelligence, where continuous learning is imperative.

“This cohort certification has an embedded artificial intelligence framework that definitely answers how companies and institutions can continue to be very competitive in this digital revolution age.

"I, therefore, call on all business captains, government agencies, as well as non-governmental organisations to register and be a part of this innovative programme.”


The fourth cohort follows growing demand for the COLP suite, which now includes sector variants for educators (CLDE) and a dedicated government programme, COLP-GOV, currently being piloted with the Egyptian Government.