The Fellowship
This is not a course with a project attached.
It's an institution being built, with a teaching programme wrapped around it.
Why we built it this way
Most executive programmes have to invent projects for their participants. The work is simulated, the stakes are artificial, and everyone involved knows it.
Legum has the opposite problem: more work than capacity.
So the Fellowship and the Dialogue are designed as a single loop.
The Dialogue is the Fellowship's laboratory: real sessions, real regulators, real audiences, real deadlines.
The Fellowship is the Dialogue's workforce: the research, production, partnerships and communications capacity that makes it possible at quality and scale.
Neither is a cost centre for the other. That is what makes the model both a better way to learn and a sustainable way to operate.
Ten things we decided early
- Implementation over theory.
- Every module ends in a deliverable, not a summary.
- Real stakes.
- Work is published, presented, or relied upon by external parties. Quality is judged from outside.
- Practitioner-majority faculty.
- At least 70% of faculty hold or have held operational roles, supervisors, MLROs, counsel, founders, analysts.
- Pan-African by construction.
- Cohort composition, case studies and research coverage are deliberately multi-jurisdictional.
- Specialisation on a common core.
- Everyone shares a rigorous foundation; everyone develops depth in one track.
- Competency, not attendance.
- You're assessed on what you can do, against a published framework employers recognise.
- Mentorship as infrastructure.
- Matched deliberately, scheduled explicitly, documented, reviewed.
- Institution-building mindset.
- We teach people to build systems and organisations, not only to perform tasks.
- Ethics as spine.
- Compliance leadership without ethical courage is a liability. It is taught, tested and modelled.
- Alumni are the real product.
- The value compounds through the network, not the certificate.
Sixteen weeks, three phases
Why not twelve? A twelve-week programme can teach, or it can produce a publishable deliverable. It cannot do both while also running mentorship, executive engagement and a defended capstone.
Why not longer? Past sixteen weeks, attrition among working professionals climbs sharply and the opportunity cost starts filtering the applicant pool in the wrong direction.
- Weeks 1–5 · Learn
- Absorb, question, map. Modules, diagnostics, track selection, mentor matching.
- Weeks 6–12 · Build
- Produce, iterate, ship. Track sprints, Dialogue sessions, research drafts, roundtables.
- Weeks 13–16 · Lead
- Own, present, defend, hand over. Capstone, Demo Day, publication, transition.
The nine components
- Academy
- Thirteen modules of core curriculum, front-loaded but running throughout. Without it, live work can't be supervised properly.
- Innovation Lab
- Track-based delivery of real projects, weeks 4–14. This is the engine.
- Leadership Development
- Six experiential Leadership Labs plus coaching. Compliance failure is usually a leadership failure; technical skill without influence is inert.
- Executive Engagement
- Fireside chats, faculty masterclasses, regulator roundtables. Access is a deliverable in its own right.
- Capstone
- A flagship project, defended before a panel. Forces synthesis and provides the external quality test.
- Mentorship
- Matched senior mentor, 16 weeks plus a 12-month alumni year.
- Networking
- Structured introductions, events, regional chapters.
- Community
- An always-on platform with track, jurisdiction and module channels, a jobs board, and peer study pods.
- Alumni
- Where the long-term value lives. Alumni Council, chapters, continued access, and the Annual Summit.
A typical week
- Mon
- Module release: readings, recorded lecture, pre-work · 2 hrs, self-paced
- Tue
- Live Academy Session: faculty-led, case-based · 90 min
- Wed
- Track working session with your Track Lead · 90 min
- Thu
- Fireside Chat or Leadership Lab, alternating · 60–90 min
- Fri
- Office hours (optional) + deliverable due · 60 min
- Weekend
- Track work, mentor session, peer pod · 3–4 hrs
≈11 hours. Two fixed commitments. Everything recorded.
There is no final exam
You're assessed continuously, on demonstrated capability, against rubrics published to you in Week 1.
- Live project delivery
- 25%
- Capstone
- 20%
- Module deliverables
- 15%
- Leadership
- 10%
- Collaboration
- 8%
- Participation & engagement
- 7%
- Research quality
- 5%
- Innovation
- 4%
- Professional behaviour
- 3%
- Presentation
- 3%
- Attendance (80% minimum)
- Gate, not score
Capstones are double-marked, with a third marker where scores diverge by more than 10%, and moderated by the Academic Director before release. There is a documented appeals process heard by a panel excluding the original assessor.
Distinction (≥85% with an excellent capstone) carries automatic Talent Pool entry and a guaranteed Legum interview. Merit (70–84%) carries Talent Pool eligibility.
Founding Cohort
Applications for the Founding Cohort are open.
Sixteen weeks. Five tracks. One cohort that only happens once.
Applications close 30th November, 2026.