Application Deadline: September 17th, 2021.
MEST Africa, is happy to announce that the application period for its Training Program has been extended until Friday September 17th, 2021.
Due to the increasing uncertainty around COVID-19 and unconfirmed graduation dates for most Universities across West Africa this year, MEST has confirmed to start the new cohort for its core Training Program in January 2022. The extension of the recruitment phase would enable MEST Africa to speak to more talents across the region as they find the next class of innovative technology entrepreneurs
MEST offers a 12-month graduate-level training to aspiring entrepreneurs across the African continent.
The entrepreneurial training program in business, communications and software development includes extensive hands-on project work, culminating in a final pitch and the chance to receive seed investment and grow businesses.
The successful world-class training program is run with the help of an internationally recognized faculty. Our teaching fellows hail from some of the best universities around the world like Oxford, Stanford, Harvard, etc. We also offer our entrepreneurs-in-training (EITs) the opportunity to be mentored by real-life Entrepreneurs, CEOs and other executives from all over the world. Guest lectures have been executives of Uber, Facebook, Safaricom, Samsung, Interswitch, and many more.
Since inception in 2008, MEST has invested over $22m in training over 350 individual entrepreneurs and funded 60+ software companies across Africa. MEST entrepreneurs have developed solutions addressing local, regional and global markets, received follow-on funding from global investors, and gotten into top accelerator programs such as Y-combinator, 500 startups and TechStars.
As COVID-19 has changed the way organizations operate around the world, causing travel restrictions and moving many workplaces to adopt digital solutions, the Training Program for 2022 will focus on entrepreneurs who live in Ghana and Nigeria.
Important Dates
- Applications close: 17th September, 2021
- Program starts: January, 2022
Curriculum Overview
- Building Sustainable Teams
- Market Research
- Product Development and Innovation
- Revenue and Business Modeling
- Branding and Communications
- Marketing and Growth Hacking
- Financial Management and Investments
- Legal and Regulatory Compliance
- Metrics and Measurements
- Sales and Traction (achieving product/market fit)
- Preparing for investments
Candidate Profile
- A degree from a top university or Technical College or equivalent experience with at least two (2) years corporate and startup experience (preferred)
- Deep skills in either communications, business or software development (from the onset or acquired during the Pre-Learning stage)
- Young persons crazy about tech and entrepreneurship, and how to use technology to achieve business results
- Should be ready to commit to a full residential program for a whole year
- Disciplined, motivated self-starter who can work and deliver on assignments and projects – demonstrate this by completing the required Pre-Learning courses and MEST’s rigorous recruitment process
- An entrepreneurial spirit and strong desire to start a company
- Ability to communicate candidly and persuasively
- Ability to work well in teams, proven academic or professional excellence
- Demonstrated leadership abilities
- Confident and independent thinking
- Excellent people skills
How to apply
Complete all these pre-learning courses:
- Intro to Agile
- Design Thinking for Beginners
- Enterprise Design Thinking Practitioner
- Web development
- HTML & CSS
- Javascript
- Git
- Fundamentals of Digital Marketing
- Business Modeling Canvas
Note: On completion of your first course on the IBM Digital Nation Africa portal, you will be guided to create an account on youracclaim.com. Once this is done, all subsequent badges earned from courses 1 – 7 will be automatically posted on to Acclaim. You can grab your profile link by clicking on the profile icon and selecting ‘view my profile’.
Kindly note that you are required to finish these courses and submit your link profile and upload your certificates to this link by the application deadline.
Take an Aptitude Test
You are required to take the Aptitude Test as your score will be requested when filling your application form and will determine your move to the next stage. Please follow this link to take the test.
For More Information:
Visit the Official Webpage of the MEST Africa Entrepreneurial Training Program 2022