Organisations face persistent talent risks, including turnover, skills gaps, and misalignment between workforce capabilities and strategic priorities. Digital transformation, AI, predictive analytics, and hybrid work have changed how organisations attract, develop, deploy, and retain employees. This short learning programme addresses the need for managers and HR practitioners to design integrated, ethical, and evidence-informed talent systems. It positions talent management as a strategic capability linked to organisational performance, resilience, innovation, and sustainability. Participants will learn to respond to workforce uncertainty, govern AI-enabled talent decisions, and align human capital decisions with organisational strategy.
Purpose of the course
The course enables participants to develop and defend strategic talent management decisions for contemporary organisations. On completion, participants will be able to define talent in relation to organisational strategy, design workforce planning and talent acquisition approaches, develop retention and succession interventions, use people analytics to inform decisions, and govern AI-enabled HR tools in relation to fairness, transparency, and privacy. The programme is distinctive because it integrates strategic HRM, people analytics, DEI, global mobility, and future-of-work issues into one applied talent audit. Participants produce a capstone dossier that translates evidence into a practical talent strategy for a specific organisational context.
Admission requirements
Admission requirements
Diploma/Certificate (NQF 5/6)
Learning assumed to be in place
English language proficiency, basic computer literacy, and a working understanding of organisational or HR management contexts.
Course outcomes and assessment criteria
Course outcomes and the associated assessment criteria
Outcomes | Assessment Criteria |
| Integrated knowledge of, and the ability to critically evaluate competing definitions of talent and defend a talent philosophy aligned with organisational strategy and context. | Explain performance and potential approaches to talent. Link the chosen definition to strategy. Apply relevant theory to retention, engagement, and capability decisions. |
| The ability to design workforce planning and talent supply strategies that anticipate skills gaps and align staffing decisions with organisational needs. | Analyse capability gaps. Propose sourcing and selection responses. Use predictive analytics logic and identify fairness, transparency, and privacy risks. |
| The ability to design talent development, performance support, and succession interventions that address skills gaps, retention risks, and remote or hybrid work conditions. | Map development actions to strategic skills. Build succession logic. Address access, fairness, isolation risk, and measurable development indicators. |
| Integrated knowledge of, and the ability to appraise people analytics and AI-enabled talent tools in terms of stakeholder value, decision quality, bias, transparency, privacy, and accountability. | Translate stakeholder questions into analytics designs. Audit AI-enabled HR use cases. Recommend controls for bias, explainability, privacy, and decision ownership. |
| The ability to develop DEI and engagement-oriented talent strategies for diverse, multi-generational, and digitally mediated workplaces. | Identify inclusion risks. Link engagement and culture to retention. Design DEI controls for talent decisions, including algorithmic fairness controls. |
| The ability to recommend global and future-of-work talent strategies that address labour mobility, hybrid work, gig work, workforce resilience, and organisational agility. | Apply scenario planning. Evaluate global mobility and alternative employment risks. Integrate recommendations into a coherent strategic talent management audit. |
Assessment
Participants will be assessed
Method of assessment
Participants will complete informal diagnostic activities, formative module-based case tasks, and a summative capstone portfolio of evidence. The capstone will be a strategic talent management audit that integrates talent philosophy, workforce planning, analytics-to-impact design, AI ethics governance, and future-of-work talent strategy. Formative assessment will support feedback during the programme. The summative assessment will determine final competence.
Additional information
Programme number
NWU3477
Target group
HR practitioners, line managers, talent managers, consultants, supervisors and emerging leaders responsible for workforce planning, retention, development, DEI, analytics or future-of-work decisions.
Duration
12 weeks
Contact us
Contact person name
Omphemetse Mmekoa
Contact person e-mail
Omphemetse.Mmekoa@nwu.ac.za
Contact person telephone number