Launched in 2020, CSP’s internship program, in collaboration with the USAID-funded University Scholarship Program (USP) and Higher Education Capacity Development Program (HECD), has been providing students from 11 Lebanese universities with the opportunity to gain professional and practical experience to start their careers and generate a temporary income during the current economic crisis. To date, CSP has placed 212 students and recent graduates (59% women) in internships across 12 USAID-funded programs in Lebanon, including 93 who have gone on to  secure employment in the private sector and at USAID-funded projects.

On February 16, 2024, as part of CSP’s objective to promote knowledge-sharing among interns and enhance their employability, former graphic design intern Sara Rizk delivered a training to 11 current interns across five USAID-funded projects on the web-based graphic design platform ‘Canva’. The platform aims to empower users with no prior graphic design experience to create a wide range of visual content, including presentations, standout resumes, invitations, infographics, and more. Such skills can enhance interns’ job performance across any discipline, making them valuable assets to current and future teams. So far, 33 interns have benefitted from skills trainings like this to improve their employability prospects.

“Through this peer-to-peer training, I gained valuable insights on Canva’s artificial intelligence features and am now aware of valuable tools that can help me elevate my presentations,” said Karen Lteif, undergraduate intern at USAID’s Water Sanitation and Conservation (WSC) project, studying chemical engineering at the Holy Spirit University of Kaslik (USEK).