Intern program hopes to bring opportunities to students, businesses in state

On Monday representatives from the InternNE program met with local businesses to promote internship possibilities and funding opportunities.

Through its website InternNE allows businesses to post available internships online and apply for grants. The website and the grant program are related, but the two are operated and funded separately.

“It’s really a place for businesses and students to connect,” InternNE Specialist, Allison Hatch said. “It’s kind of your one-stop-shop. You can find interns and then it’s also your way to apply to the grant program and manage the few program forms that you have to fill out.”

Everyone is eligible for 50 percent reimbursement match on up to a $5,000 internship. Also, companies hiring Pell Grant recipients will receive up to 75 percent reimbursement and an additional $2,500. Companies are limited to a maximum of five students per location, per year and up to 10 companywide.

The Net New Rule only applies to companies with 100 or more employees companywide. In order to qualify for this program, you have to be above the baseline that you were at last year or it could be in a new division or location.

The internship has to be of a sufficient duration. There is no longer a minimum hours requirement, but the committee asks employers to take a guess at how many hours their intern will be working. By doing so, the committee can be sure that the internship will be logical and beneficial.

InternNE requires businesses to pay minimum wage, but the average wage is around $13 per hour.

“A lot of companies are using these funds to pay a higher wage and be more competitive,” Hatch said.

The internships are not permitted to make up more than 50 percent of the Nebraska work force. For example, if a startup company has two employees, InternNE could only give them two interns.

Interns can be any full time student in the state of Nebraska or a resident attending college out of state. That includes high school seniors as well as students six months after graduation.

InternNE has implemented and application and contract review cycle that sets deadlines for the paperwork to be turned in.

“This is a better system for us administratively,” Hatch said. “It also allows for us to review applications competitively. Now you’re grouping applications together, looking at the job descriptions and comparing them and making sure that we’re funding the internships that are the best quality—the ones that we really want to be contributing our state funds to.”

The InternNE grant program began two years ago on June 1, due to LB386. The program was only funded for the first two years, so the committee had to go back to the legislature to ask for more funding and for changes to be made.

LB476 extended funding for the program as well as implemented changes. The program has been expanded to make more businesses eligible throughout the state of Nebraska.

Because of the competitive application cycle, the committee has thought of some potential ways to preference applications—varying from the student having the opportunity to have input into the internship, if they are provided a supervisor that can help them, internships within STEM, creating Net New internships or internships located outside of Lincoln or Omaha to get more opportunities in greater Nebraska.