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Committee hears expansion request for Scitech internship program; amendment adopted clarifying fund source
Summary
House File 19‑57 would provide $1 million per year to the Minnesota Technology Association to operate the SciTech internship wage reimbursement program; the committee adopted an author's A1 amendment clarifying funding to come from the workforce development fund and laid the bill over.
The committee heard House File 19‑57, a proposal to provide $1 million per year to the Minnesota Technology Association (MinTech) to operate the SciTech internship program, which places STEM students in paid internships at small Minnesota companies.
Representative Elkins offered an A1 author’s amendment to clarify that the appropriation would come from the workforce development fund; the committee adopted the A1 amendment by voice vote. The bill and amendment were then laid over for further consideration.
Jeff Tolleson, president of the Minnesota Technology Association, told the committee the program provides a wage match for small employers and links students to internships in biotech, engineering, IT, manufacturing, energy management, agriculture and aeronautics. “State funding provides a 50% wage match up to 3,000 helping small businesses access top talent and develop their future workforce,” Tolleson said. He said since 2012 Scitech has placed more than 3,300 interns at 672 small companies and that in 2024 roughly 64% of interns were women or people of color.
A former Scitech intern, Andrew Thomas, described how the internship led to full‑time employment at a small Arden Hills IT firm after his internship and said the program connected his education to paid work.
House File 19‑57 was laid over for further consideration in an omnibus bill.
