Building on a successful summer that funded 479 internships, New Jersey’s Career Accelerator Internship Grant Program is expanding into the fall, creating hundreds of additional paid professional opportunities for college students and recent graduates.
Administered by the New Jersey Office of the Secretary of Higher Education (OSHE) with funding from the Department of Labor and Workforce Development (DOL), the program awarded grants to 178 New Jersey employers this year. In total, the initiative is backing approximately 700 paid internships across the summer and fall cycles.
“New Jersey’s future depends on keeping our talented students here and connecting them with meaningful opportunities to grow professionally within our state’s industries,” Gov. Mikie Sherrill said. “By supporting our businesses that offer valuable work experience, we can expand our talent pipelines and create clearer pathways into careers that are critical for our economic prosperity.”
The Career Accelerator program provides structural financial relief to both businesses and students. Participating employers can apply for up to $4,000 per intern to subsidize wages set at $20 per hour. In exchange, students commit to 150 to 200 hours of structured, hands-on learning.
Secretary of Higher Education Margo Chaly emphasized the equity and stability the program affords participants. “Paid internships help translate the investment students and families make in a college education into stronger employment outcomes,” Chaly noted. “They also give students who may rely on part-time work or other income the ability to participate in an internship without sacrificing financial stability.”
Data from the National Association of Colleges and Employers shows that experiential learning improves overall career satisfaction, increases starting salaries, and yields more post-graduation job offers.
The employers participating in New Jersey’s initiative span a wide cross-section of the state’s economy, including:
- Biopharma and life sciences
- Construction and energy
- Financial services and professional services
- Health care, technology, and manufacturing
- Retail, transportation, logistics, and nonprofits
Since OSHE began administering the program in 2022, it has awarded over $8 million in grants, supporting roughly 2,200 paid internships and growing employer participation by nearly 54 percent.
To further scale these efforts, New Jersey is also joining the Advancing State and Systems Strategies for Work-Based Learning project—a multi-state coalition led by the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association (SHEEO) aimed at expanding education-to-career coaching.
