NWPA Job Connect was awarded the State/Local Internship Program (SLIP) grant from the PA Department of Labor and Industry to support youth internship throughout Clarion, Crawford, Erie, Forest, Venango, and Warren counties.

Local employers will have the opportunity to provide internships to youth ages 16-24 to expose them to local career opportunities in High Priority Occupations (HPO), leaving the interns with valuable work experience and skills.

The interns will work 25-40 hours in a five-day work week for an eight-week duration making a minimum of $10.35 an hour. This opportunity will enable employers to showcase their industry to encourage youth to stay or return to the area after postsecondary education to develop a pipeline for a future workforce.

The grant will support employers by reimbursing 65% and the employer will pay 35% of the intern’s wages for the 8-week duration, as well as enabling collaboration between employers, educational providers, PA CareerLink®, NWPA Job Connect and other agencies.

The 2019 SLIP grant supported 25 student internships with 16 regional employers. The students were able to put concepts and theory into real life practice. One of last year’s interns said:

“What I enjoy most about the work that I am doing is the fact that I get to experience my major in a real company. While in school, it’s hard to put concepts with real life situations, but being in those situations has allowed me to better understand a lot of the concepts I have learned about.”

For more information, contact Julie Price at jprice@nwpajobconnect.org or (814) 333-1286 x108.

This article was published in the Venango Chamber’s June 2020 VenangoWorks! Newsletter