Tech skills marketplace

The Industry Innovation Lab manages a tech skills marketplace to provide world-class tech talent to African startups. This program helps startups hire CMU-Africa students as interns from May through August. Interns may work in person or virtually. CMU-Africa provides co-funding with the start-up to support the intern.

CMU-Africa student skills

CMU-Africa students are enrolled in three different types of master's degree programs:

The students have expertise in data science, software development, artificial intelligence, IT-entrepreneurship, cybersecurity, and information technology.

How the program works

  • The startup submits an internship proposal through the CMU-Africa Corporate Internship Portal. The proposal should indicate the startup’s tech need which matches the profile of CMU-Africa students.
  • CMU-Africa reviews the applications and selects appropriate startups for participation. (Check selection criteria for details.)
  • The selected internship opportunities are then posted for CMU-Africa students to apply
  • CMU-Africa students apply for these opportunities based on their interests and skills
  • The startups interview, select, and “make offers” to successful candidates
  • Students work at startups from May through August, working on a mutually agreed upon set of contractual deliverables.

Benefits to the startups

  • Access to three months of engineering talent
  • Co-funding of intern ($500 USD per month, 75% from CMU-Africa, 25% from the company)
  • The opportunity to assess a potential future employee

Selection criteria for startups

  • Be registered and operational in Africa
  • Have a well-defined tech need matching CMU-Africa’s student profile
  • Have a well-defined ICT project that is relevant to our student’s career aspirations and well developed to allow both the student and the startup to grow
  • Appoint a dedicated team member to supervise and mentor the intern
  • Has been in operation for two to five years, and is able to co-fund 25% of the internship cost, equivalent to $100 USD per month.
  • Ready to provide the CMU-Africa intern with a three-month employment contract with a documented scope of work
  • Ready to participate in two post-internship program impact tracking surveys

How to apply 

All applications must be made through the CMU-Africa Corporate Internship Portal. Please note that CMU-Africa accepts both remote and in-person positions.

Program timeline