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Vince Basile isn’t waiting for technology workers to come knocking on his company’s door. He’s going to them.

Basile, founder of Aerospace Geartech Inc. in Clive, is among nearly 50 business owners statewide who have been awarded funds through a new state matching-grant program that will enable him to hire up to three college interns this summer. The Iowa Department of Economic Development (IDED) began awarding the Iowa Internship Program grants earlier this year.

Aerospace Geartech has received approval for state matching grants for two interns and has applied for a third grant. Basile has already pitched his internship opportunities to two tool-and-die classes at Des Moines Area Community College. He’s also seeking an engineering intern from Iowa State University, and plans to approach students in DMACC’s drafting and design program and at other colleges as well. His company, which he formed in 2006 through the acquisition of one business in Florida and another in Illinois, specializes in manufacturing precision gears and sprockets for the aerospace industry.

The internship program “has made it possible to do more than just hire temp help or to hire off the street,” Basile said. “The key is to be able to find the right person at a very minimal cost.” The program will enable his company to fund each intern with $7.50 per hour in payroll, with the other half of the $15 hourly wage picked up by the state, he noted. “So I’m looking at more of the long-term route than a short-term project basis.”

The program is open to companies with fewer than 500 employees that operate in the state’s targeted industries of biosciences, advanced manufacturing and information technology.

It’s designed to encourage more college students to stay in the state after graduation, said Mike Tramontina, the IDED’s director. According to a Generation Iowa Commission report released in January, the number of college students coming to Iowa from other states is three times greater than the number who leave Iowa to attend college, for a net annual “brain gain” of more than 8,000 students.

“Iowa excels at attracting college students to the state,” he said. “The goal of the program is to take full advantage of Iowa’s college student brain gain by transitioning college student interns to full-time employees in the state upon graduation.” According to a 2004 study conducted by the Knowledge Industry Partnership, out-of-state students who interned in the area where their college was located were twice as likely to stay as those who did not.

The program will match up to $3,100 for each internship, up to a maximum of $9,300 toward three internships per company. It’s applicable for internships offered by eligible companies to students at any community college, private college or state university in Iowa. To receive their reimbursement, companies must prove they’ve paid at least $14.50 per hour to the interns during a minimum eight-week internship of at least 30 hours per week.

The internship program is part of a larger effort by the IDED’s Innovation and Commercialization Division to fill both immediate and longer-term workforce training needs, particularly for the three targeted industries. Using an appropriation of $6.9 million this fiscal year, the department has funded programs that range from providing direct capital investments in start-up companies to hosting networking events for businesses in those industries. Each of the programs stem from recommendations made three years ago by the Battelle Memorial Institute, a global consulting firm hired by the state to recommend growth strategies for Iowa.

“We’ve gotten a very good response to the program,” said Alana Anderson, who manages the internship program within the IDED. Through the end of February, the program had funded 91 internships for 47 companies. With a total of $480,000 to award this fiscal year, that means the department will be able to fund about 63 more summer internships this year, she said.

“I’ve been talking with (business) people the past few days who are looking into the program, so we’re expecting more applications,” Anderson said last week.

In addition to sending out postcards to companies in the targeted industries and publishing an article in a newsletter sent to those companies, the department has also given fliers to legislators to give to businesses within their districts, she said. The department also has listed all of the available internships online at www.smartcareermove.com, under the student internships tab.

Mike Gaul, director of career services with ISU’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, said he was not aware of the program promoting bioscience opportunities prior to being contacted about it by the Business Record. For his college right now, it’s a students’ market for internship opportunities, he said.

“I’m fairly certain there are more internship opportunities than students right now,” he said. “It’s gotten pretty competitive (among the companies). It’s kind of a role reversal, where the ball seems to be in the students’ court for once. It’s indicative of a strong (agricultural) economy.”

Regardless of the career area they’re pursuing, college students should get two to three relevant internships under their belt before graduating, Gaul said.

Among the bioscience companies that will use the internship program is Frontline BioEnergy LLC in Ames. The company plans to hire a mechanical engineering student to assist in laboratory testing and operation of its biomass gasification system, said Norman Reese, Frontline’s general manager.

“We had been contacted by potential interns in the past,” Reese said. “Really, this program made it financially feasible for us. So it was good timing.”

The program will greatly benefit a student intern, Reese added. “This would allow a unique experience in utilizing biomass as a renewable energy source,” he said. “There are very few universities or companies that have a biomass gasifier. As the biomass and ethanol industries grow, this will provide a unique opportunity for that individual.”

Basile, who launched Aerospace Geartech with two employees and now has six, said the ability to hire interns should also help him to reduce his hiring risk. Prior to the internship program’s launch, he had hired a DMACC student who was willing to work on a full-time basis while continuing his classes at night.

“I had dreamed of hiring an intern, but I couldn’t afford it,” he said. “It gave both of us an opportunity to see if it would work out for us.”