Fast Facts Overview:

Overview:  In 2018, the Virginia General Assembly appropriated funding to the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV) to stimulate public colleges and universities to develop partnerships to provide innovative paid internship opportunities for their students. In 2019, the effort was expanded and enacted into law as the Innovative Internship Fund and Program. In 2020, through a partnership with the Virginia Chamber Foundation, the program was rebranded as the Virginia Talent + Opportunity Partnership (V-TOP).

The primary focus is a statewide initiative to facilitate the readiness of students, employers, and institutions of higher education to participate in internships and other work-based learning opportunities. The focus of this grant competition is to assist institutions in collecting, compiling, and reporting data on students' internship experiences. These experiences involve for-credit, non-credit, zero-credit, and transcriptable activities.

Public four-year institutions of higher education should submit a three-page (max) letter of interest with a cover sheet conforming to the instructions. SCHEV intends to award one-time grants to public institutions in the Commonwealth.

Grantees may use funding to:

• Purchase incentives to encourage students to report internship experiences.
• Develop an internship-specific program or curriculum that will facilitate internship readiness of students.
• Purchase platforms or resources that support institutions with internship data collection, tracking, and reporting methods.
• Purchase or develop a comprehensive transcriptable record system of students’ participation in an internship (inside or outside of the classroom).

Grantees are expected to:

• Comply with standard grant administration requirements, such as tracking expenses and submitting progress reports as described in the instructions.

Letters of Interest  Are Now Being Accepted

Eligible Applicants

Eligible applicants are Virginia’s 15 public four-year institutions of higher education.

Letters of Interest Due: Tuesday, December 19, 2023
Estimated Start Date: Upon announcement of the award, the grant must begin immediately.
Length of Award: 12 months, this grant is a one-time-only, non-renewable award.
Number of Grants: Fifteen
Award Amount: $100,000.00

Please see the full instructions for details.

Informational Webinar Link: https://youtu.be/6UNL7wANiRw

Informational Webinar Slide Deck (November 30, 2023, session)

Submission of Letters of Interest
Please submit letters of interest via email to Stacey Garnett, V-TOP Financial Services Specialist at staceygarnett@schev.edu. Letters must be received by 11:59 p.m. on the due date (December 19, 2023).