Microsoft’s ‘Learn for Success’ Program Now Open for IT Students

Microsoft is inviting young IT students to participate in its summer internship program, with only 37 positions available across branches in Pakistan, Egypt, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates. In order to make it to the list of selectees, candidates will be required to take part and prove themselves in a competition that Microsoft calls ‘Learn for Success’.

What is Microsoft Learn for Success?

Learn for Success is a competition designed by Microsoft specifically for talented IT students in the Middle East and African regions. The idea behind this contest is for students to demonstrate their knowledge by completing a series of indicated DVLUP challenges and earning points. As they accumulate points, students will be able to view their progress on the Learn for Success Heroes Leaderboard. The competition begins on December 15th 2014 and ends on May 15th 2015, lasting a total of 5 months.

What are DVLUP challenges?

DVLUP is a Nokia-led portal that helps developers transition their ideas into the marketplace, improve upon them, and ultimately become successful. As a partner of the DVLUP program, Microsoft has provided students exclusive access to Learn for Success via DVLUP. The software giant encourages IT students to join the community, develop their skills, and equip themselves with modern tools by taking up challenges from three different categories:

1. Developer: build sites and applications using the foundation that the infrastructure offers
2. Infrastructure: create, implement, and realize solutions within any organization
3. Community: Download and make use of tools designed for individual developers and students to create apps

What is the criteria for eligibility?

Students are eligible for the Learn for Success competition if they are:

• legal residents of either Egypt, Pakistan, South Africa, Turkey or United Arab Emirates
• 16 years old or older at the time of registration
• enrolled as a student at an accredited educational institution in one of the aforementioned countries during the period of July 1st, 2014 and June 30th, 2015
• not an employee of Microsoft or an employee/intern of a subsidiary of the company, nor immediately related to a company employee
• not involved in the administration and execution of the competition

What can I expect?

Students can expect to have the opportunity to download software from DreamSpark and gain access to free training delivered via experts from Microsoft Virtual Academy. As mentioned earlier, the prize will be a paid internship at Microsoft during the summer of 2015 that will run for 3 months from June 2015 to August 2015. Interns will be allocated at Microsoft offices as per the geographic regions assigned by Learn for Success.

How can I apply?

Students can apply by following 2 simple steps.

1. Register at Learn for Success
2. Register at the DVLUP portal and take up Learn for Success challenges in order to gain points