The Columbia-based Maryland Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MD MEP) recently kicked off its sixth-annual Summer Manufacturing Internship Program, which supports Maryland manufacturers with the cost of hiring, onboarding and training summer interns. This year’s program is MD MEP’s most successful to date, matching 28 rising college juniors, seniors, and graduate students with work placement inside 12 manufacturers across the state.
The Summer Manufacturing Internship Program is a key initiative in MD MEP’s efforts to cultivate Maryland’s next generation of manufacturing talent. As host of the program, MD MEP will connect the interns and the sponsor companies throughout the summer, ending with a final presentation on Aug. 4. Each intern will present about their work within their manufacturing facility, allowing all the students to learn from each other’s experiences, and be exposed to other manufacturers across the state. MD MEP, through Maryland’s Department of Labor EARN Program, offers a $1,000 reimbursement per intern to support wages paid by each participating manufacturer.
Beyond providing the interns with invaluable work experience, the program also helps local manufacturers with one of their most pressing challenges ― building a skilled workforce. The 12 manufacturers participating in this year’s program are Aidar Health, Caldwell Manufacturing, C-Care, Direct Dimensions, EFI Group, Hardwire, Longeviti, Mahlet Consulting, Miltec UV, Pompeian, Strouse and Zero Point Therapeutics.
“As a small biotech company manufacturing therapeutics for infectious diseases, the MD MEP Manufacturing Internship Program has served a number of purposes. It has allowed us to expose young budding scientists to the real nuts and bolts of drug development and manufacturing. The program also provides economic support at a time when we need it to meet our goals but lastly, it gives us a chance to have more team members to help us further execute our task of manufacturing our drug and filing our application with the FDA,” said Joseph Amprey, CEO of Zero Point Five Therapeutics. “All I can say is even as a CEO of a biotech company, I wish I could have had the experience that we are providing to our summer interns all because of this program. “
To learn more about the MD MEP Summer Manufacturing Internship Program, please visit https://mdmep.org/internship-program or contact Kerry Wells at [email protected].