Special thanks for cooperation and participation goes to the following AMFA Members: Finance for Development, Norwegian Microcredit, Shorebank Overseas Azerbaijan, Royal Bank of Baku and World Vision AzerCredit. AMFA thanks the representatives of these organizations for their timely assistance in all activities throughout the duration of the Internship Program.

By launching the Internship Programme, AMFA supported its Members (non-bank credit organizations, downscaling banks) in obtaining access to highly educated and qualified professionals. This programme aimed to develop public awareness of the Microfinance Sector and the services it provides to the vulnerable poor in the regions. It also proactively nurtured top talent in the microfinance industry and developed AMFA’s brand awareness amongst young professional university students by providing them with microfinance employment opportunities. Thus, a bridge between university students entering the workforce and potential employers was created to mitigate frictional unemployment in the Republic of Azerbaijan.

The project offered to its AMFA Member organizations six (6) young professionals that sought to work in the microfinance and banking sector, of which three (3) were offered permanent employment upon completion of the Internship period.

Academic Universities were interested to promote the program in order to help assist students with opportunities for career development, while AMFA used the opportunity to create a database of young professionals for future employment recommendation to its Member institutes.  Hence, AMFA is now positioning itself as an association that holds a reliable database of top young talent that is willing to work in the microfinance and banking sector.

During the creation and implementation of the Internship program, the following critical steps were conducted by AMFA:

1. MFI Selection and signing of Memorandum of Understanding Agreements (MOU’s)
2. Program design and development
3. Creation of forecasted budget
4. Advertising, marketing, and promotion
5. Application review, nominees selection and recruitment
6. One week theoretical training
7. Four weeks practical training
8. Questionnaires, roundtable discussions, and program evaluation
9. Press release and media announcements

This Report will now provide a description of each stage in greater detail.