Iowa Student Internship Program

Business Leaders Shaking Heads

Topics:

Business Engagement

Announcement: Due to changes in funding by the state legislature, the Innovative Businesses Internship Program (formerly Targeted Industries Internship Program or TIIP) will not open for FY 2026. 

The Iowa Student Internship Program provides grant awards to small and medium-sized Iowa businesses to help grow and support student internship opportunities in targeted industries – with a goal of transitioning student interns to full-time employment in Iowa upon graduation. 

  • Eligible employers may qualify for awards up to $9,300 per fiscal year.
  • Funds are paid out on a reimbursement basis. For every $2 of wages earned by the student intern, $1 paid by the employer is matched with $1 from Iowa Workforce Development during the designated internship period (up to $3,100 per intern).
  • No funding generated by any state source can be used as matching funds, but federal funding is an eligible match.
  • A company is eligible for a maximum of 3 internships per fiscal year (July 1 – June 30).
  • IWD will not reimburse funds that are spent prior to receiving an award.
  • Funds cannot be used to cash flow a business.
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Export Internships

Through this program, your company also is able to hire students to serve as export interns supporting your current or prospective international export efforts. Resources are available through the universities to assist employers in finding qualified interns, to support the student during the export internship, and to assist companies in exporting. Contacts for these resources are found below on this page.

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Who Qualifies? 

Businesses

You are an Eligible Employer if your business is:

  • Engaged in a targeted industry: bioscience, advanced manufacturing, or information technology,.
  • Employs 500 or fewer employees where a significant portion are employed within Iowa.
  • Pays intern(s) at least twice the minimum hourly wage or more (minimum $14.50/hour).
  • Offers internship(s) to students who meet the outlined eligibility requirements.
    • Offers summer and/or semester internships.
    • Summer internship(s) are a minimum of eight weeks (averaging no less than 30 hours per week).
    • Semester internship(s) are a minimum of 14 weeks (averaging no less than 10 hours per week).
    • Internships are substantive experiences in one or more of the following areas: research and development, engineering, process management and production, product experimentation and analysis, product development, market research, exporting, business planning or administration.

You are an Ineligible Employer if your business:

  • Is engaged in retail sales and/or providing health services.
  • Have closed or substantially reduced your company's workforce by more than 20 percent at existing operations in order to relocate substantially the same operations to another area of the state. (Doing so will make all of your Iowa locations ineligible for 36 months from the date the new establishment opens.) 

Interns

Eligible Interns are:

  • Employed at an Iowa location.
  • Undergraduate or graduate students at an Iowa community college, private college, or regent university, or graduated from an Iowa high school if attending an institution of higher learning outside of Iowa.
  • Within one to two years of graduation. 

Ineligible Interns are:

  • Students who have recently graduated, are no longer current students, or are more than two years from graduation.
  • Students who are immediate family members of management employees or board members of the awarded employer.
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How Do I Apply?

  • Due to changes in funding by the state legislature, the Innovative Businesses Internship Program (formerly Targeted Industries Internship Program or TIIP) will not open for FY 2026.
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Are You a Student in Need of an Internship? 

  • Log into IowaWORKS to browse internship job postings
  • Visit your local IowaWORKS Offices to get connected to a wide array of career services.
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Resources

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STEM Internship Program

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