The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) honored 60 interns, including three women, at a ceremony on January 18 that recognized their successful completion of a six-month internship program in Kandahar province.

This internship program, implemented nationwide, provides training and work opportunities to students studying in their fourth year at Afghan universities.  This process enables Afghan students to advance from an educational to a professional environment by applying academic knowledge to real world scenarios. 

Afghan Consulting and National Network (CNN), the implementing partner for the program in Kandahar, gave a qualifying exam to 95 students from the department of Engineering, Agriculture and Education at Kandahar University in June of 2008.  Sixty students, including three females, were selected for the program.  The students were trained in modern accounting, marketing, and business management for three months.  They were then placed at various private sector firms for a three-month practical internship.  According to Afghan CNN, eighty percent of the participating interns received permanent jobs at their respective hosting firms during this session. 

Mr. Najib Dawoodzai, one of the program’s management trainers noted that, “All of the participants were very happy that they could cover management, accounting, and marketing, which are fundamental requirements for many professional organizations.  I have continually heard students requesting more frequent internship programs at Kandahar University.”

This high level of satisfaction was echoed by the student interns.  One such intern, Mr. Fazila Mansoori, mentioned that, “The training program was full of benefits for me.  It allowed me to work independently during my practical work experience and will make me an attractive candidate for future employment.”

To date, USAID, through its small and medium enterprise development project, has trained 828 interns from across Afghanistan.  More then 70 percent of these participants have received permanent job offers from their host companies.  Training and guidance for tomorrow’s business leaders is a major driving force in creating development and prosperity for the people of Afghanistan.