Microsoft Students to Business

FAQs

General Students Employers Learning Centres

General

1. What is the aim of Microsoft Students to Business?

Microsoft Students to Business is an internship initiative that is a briding program to students, which provides them with business related training to assist them in gaining employment.

Students

1. Can I apply for more than one internship project at a time?

Yes, you may apply for multiple internship projects at a time, however you may only participate in one at a time. So should you accept an internship offer, you will no longer be able to apply to any other projects nor accept any other offers. In addition once you have accepted an offer, your other applications, and interviews will no longer be active, as you will become "unavailable".

2. Can I join a project that interests me?

Yes. You can do this by simply selecting the project of your choice, and then applying using the appropriate link, and then by completing the necessary steps as specified on the portal.

3. Can I participate in more than one internship project at a time?

No, while you may apply for more than one internship at a time, once you have been accepted as an intern within a project, you will no longer be able to apply nor participate in any other internships, untilt he project has completed.

4. Once I've registered, what else can I do on the Students to Business portal?

You will have access to updating your online CV (including additional fields that are not displayed during the initial registration), the list of internship projects, see the description of these projects, and get access to any student only downloads (where available). You will also be able to manage the projects you apply for, the interviews you have on offer, and also accept or reject an internship offer.

5. What happens once a student has completed an internship project?

Students can either gain further employment with the partner that offered them their internship, depending on their performance on the partner's business needs.

Employers

1. Can partners claim money back from their SETA for participating in this internship initiative?

This will depends upon which SETA tey are registered with. The internship can be reflected on their Workplace Skills Plan, and it can assis a partner to recovering skills levies.

2. How long is an internship program/project?

The minimum duration for an internship program/project is 8 months, but most partners elect to sign students up on a 12 month contract, as this gives them enough time to assess the candidates skills, etc.

3. How many candidates can we send through the program?

There is currently no limit to the number of students that you can put through the program.

4. How much does the partner need to pay the interns?

Our minimum salary requirement on the program is R3000 per month, but the partner is welcome to increase this amount at their own discretion.

5. What are the costs involved in putting a candidate through Microsoft Students to Business?

Microsoft funds a large part of the training, but there is potentially a small training contribution required from the partner. This is dependent on the cost of training. Please see the partner and customer document for the explanation of the funding model.

The partner is also required to pay for candidate exams.

6. What certifications are available through Microsoft Students to Business?

All Microsoft certifications are available through Microsoft Students to Business.

7. When do the different programs start?

The start of a training program is dependent on the number of partners that are participating in that paticular training class. We can only start a specific program once we have enough candidates to fill a class, and the class sizes depend upon the certification selected.

8. Where does Microsoft source candidates from?

Microsoft regularly attends career expos and open days at Universities and Universities of Technology around the country. Interested candidates register on our portal and candidates are sourced from these online registrations. Registered partners also have access to the student listing through the portal infrastructure.

9. Where does the training happen?

Microsoft outsources the training to our CPLS (Certified Partners in Learning Solutions) network, which are located around the country.

10. Who signs the employment contract with the students?

The employment contract is between the partner and the student. Partners can use their own internal fixed-term employment contract for this purpose.