News South Asia

Microsoft internships in Nigeria

Microsoft, software giant, is hoping to help several local youths secure better-paying jobs through a skills development internship programme.

The 10-week Employable Skills Development Internship Program (ESDIP) is conducted in partnership with Government Wide Messaging and Collaboration (GWMC) project.
 
GWMC is an initiative of Galaxy Backbone, aimed at ensuring efficiency, cost-savings, increased productivity and the effective delivery of public services to the citizenry by modernizing the way public officials communicate within government.
 
Speaking on the partnership, Olayinka Oni, Chief Technology Officer, Microsoft Nigeria explained that the objective of the program was to train interns to develop transferable and employable skills that will facilitate their placement in organizations.
 
He said the programme would at the same time leverage the interns to support the GWMC programme through the distribution of devices and training of recipients in the use of the devices.
 
Through the programme, Microsoft will distribute over 500 windows phones in support of the GWMC programme, while Integral Assets Limited will recruit and train the interns on behalf of Microsoft, which would be responsible for the distribution of these phones to respective recipients.  

The Employable Skills Development Internship Program (ESDIP) with GWMC will run until the January 30.
 
Microsoft is targeting 75 percent placement of the interns with companies, especially the partner community at the end of the programme.
 
Interns will participate in a comprehensive training programme covering MS Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Outlook, Report Writing, Interpersonal Effectiveness, Time Management, Windows Phone 8, Customer Service, Employment and Interviewing Skills.
 
Each intern will also receive a 20 page Insights Discovery Personality Profile to facilitate self and social awareness based on an online evaluator.