Programmes · 30 September 2026 · 1 min read
Inside the Makkan Engineering Fellowship: Training Junior Engineers for the AI Era
AI tools can now write a lot of code. What they cannot do is decide whether that code is right for the system it is joining. That judgment is what separates an engineer who ships from one who only generates, and junior engineers get far fewer chances to build it.
The Makkan Engineering Fellowship is our answer.
How it works
- Cohorts run for 12 weeks with four fellows each, open to software engineers and QA engineers.
- Each fellow is paired one to one with a Makkan engineer as a mentor, and all fellows and engineers meet together every three weeks.
- Time is split on purpose: about 20% structured learning, 60% supervised production work, and 20% review, feedback and technical development.
- The first half is spent on internal projects, to learn how we write code and the standards behind it. The second half is spent alongside our engineers on real work.
Who we look for
We look at fundamentals, ability to learn, communication, consistency, problem-solving, and evidence of building real things. Years of experience matter less. Applicants need about a year of experience, a GitHub profile or other tested work, and a short recording of why they want to join.
What the fellowship is not
It is not a school, and it is not an informal internship. There are no lectures and no certificates.
Completing the 12 weeks does not automatically make someone a mid-level engineer. Progression depends on performance: code quality, judgment, and how fellows respond to review. Strong fellows may be offered a path to become an engineer at Makkan.
How we measure it
We measure the fellowship like a business, not a classroom: how many fellows become production-ready, how quickly they become billable, and what it costs us to produce a reliable engineer compared with hiring an experienced one.
Our first cohort is working through the programme now, and we will share what we learn from it.