YOUNGSTOWN — A state workforce development program with ties to Youngstown State University has won two national awards.

The Ohio Procurement Internship Program, a project created through the Ohio APEX Accelerator Program and supported by the Ohio Department of Development in the field of government contracts, received the Outstanding Project Award and the People’s Choice Award at the National APEX Accelerator Spring Conference in March in Idaho.

According to a news release Tuesday, through the project, a program course was provided by YSU to teach undergraduate college students the fundamentals of government contracting. Students participated in a 12-week internship to apply their classroom experiences while working for Ohio businesses that had successful, prior government contracting past performance.

Students worked 40-hour weeks and performed tasks related to opportunity identification, proposal response, capability statement development and agency search with support by APEX Accelerator staff at YSU, the release states.

Fourteen students were introduced to government contracting. One student was hired following the classroom instruction and several others chose to pursue a career in the field, the release states.

The Outstanding Project Award recognizes an accomplishment that stood out among each of the nation’s APEX organizations, and the People’s Choice Award recognizes the program that best exemplified what it is to be an APEX Accelerator and / or counselor.

Ohio’s APEX Accelerator Program, which is under the management of the U.S. Department of Defense Office of Small Business Programs, launched the state internship program in September 2022.