Software giant Microsoft plans to help Nigerian youths secure better-paying jobs through a skills development internship programme.

The 10-week ‘Employable Skills Development Internship Programme’ (ESDIP) is conducted in partnership with Nigeria’s Government Wide Messaging and Collaboration (GWMC) project.

GWMC is an initiative of Galaxy Backbone, which is aimed at ensuring efficiency, cost-savings, increased productivity and the effective delivery of public services to the citizenry by modernising the way public officials communicate within government.

Speaking about the partnership, Olayinka Oni, chief technology officer for Microsoft Nigeria, explained that the objective of the program is to train interns to develop transferable and employable skills that will facilitate
their placement in organisations.

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 plans to 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.

The Employable Skills Development Internship Program (ESDIP) with GWMC will run until the January 30.

Microsoft is targeting 75% 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.