Nairobi Firm Wants PhD Holders Only for Internship Program

A Nairobi company has announced an internship program for graduates in the Information Technology (IT) Computer Software and Financial Services. However, the firm is seeking PhD graduates only who would be employed on a full-time basis. 
International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, with operations in over 170 countries including Kenya. 
IBM Kenya is located at the Atrium in Starehe Constituency along Chaka Road in Nairobi. The advert posted on social media pages and job websites said that Africa is poised to become a leading source of innovation in a variety of sectors with an expected growth rate of 7 percent annually over the next 20 years.
The company added that it recognises the potential impact of research and smarter systems in helping to build Africa’s future, hence the African research lab creates technology applications in a range of industries at the core of Africa’s growth. 

Jobseekers wait to hand in their documents during recruitment at County Hall in Nairobi, 2019.
Twitter “IBM believes that increasing access to healthcare and improving the quality of healthcare is critical to the continent of Africa. We develop and leverage high-end AI technologies to develop original and novel solutions to healthcare challenges,” an excerpt of the advert reads. 
The company disclosed that interns are evaluated on their technical contributions, ability to collaborate across labs, and leadership. It added that the aforementioned qualifications metrics create a unique combination of roles and responsibilities for a research intern working in the healthcare domain.
The recruits are needed in the Nairobi and South Africa research labs for health and climate change projects. Among the skills required technical and professional expertise are; PhD in Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, Computer Science, Applied Mathematics applied to Healthcare.
Experience analyzing large-scale data from a variety of sources, design, validation, and characterization of algorithms and/or systems and contributing to open source projects. 
In addition to having a PhD, one must have expert knowledge in programming languages: Python, Java, C, C++, Go and Julia and must have had his work published in scientific publications such as NIPS, CVPR, ICML, ICLR, IJCAI, AAAI, KDD, AMIA, JAMIA or JAMA. 
The interns will be required to develop technologies, analytics and algorithms in healthcare projects and identify AI/ML and data-driven methods when more traditional approaches are infeasible. IBM has invested over Ksh12 trillion ($120 billion) to transform its strategy, portfolio, and workforce since 2012, saying that it is the largest technology and consulting employer in the world, with more than 380,000 IBMers serving clients in 170 countries. 
It has more than 3,000 researchers in 12 labs located across six continents pioneering work in areas such as cognitive computing, augmented intelligence, quantum computing, and blockchain. As of Tuesday, February 16, over 67 applicants had tendered in their curriculum vitae. 

IBM headquarters in Armonk, New York in the US
File Data by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) in June 2020 indicated that the state of unemployment worsened in Kenya during the Covid-19 crisis. The agency said that over 700,000 youth were rendered jobless. Kenya’s unemployment rate doubled to 10.4% in just three months, March to June 2020 and at least 1.72 million workers lost their jobs due to lockdowns and curfews. 
In August 2020, a number of degree holders said that they shelved their certificates to focus on ventures that could help them generate an income as they were frustrated by endless job searches combined with the high costs of living.