A second round of funding for Operation Intern has now closed.
Operation Intern is a grant program administered by the state Commerce department. It provides employers in targeted industries with matching money, to help pay for interns.
And the Department says the program is working.
Katie Ralston Howe is the director of the Commerce Department’s workforce division. She has the numbers through the end of the last biennium, which ended June 30th, 2021.
"By that point, we had, over the lifetime of this program, 3,780 interns went through this program," Howe said. "And we supported 462 businesses."
That has been since the program's inception in 2007.
The program is geared toward targeted industries, including energy, advanced manufacturing, value-added agriculture, tourism, and technology-based businesses.
Ralston Howe said the program allows students in high school and college to get some hands-on experiences.
"It's also a great recruitment tool for employers," Ralston Howe said. "They have potential employees come through the doors, and audition for full time jobs after graduation."
Ralston Howe said Commerce is now working on finding out how many of the internships led to full-time jobs.