Abstract
In what has been a challenging job market over the past several years, the demand for workers to fill jobs in the biomanufacturing sector has remained strong, particularly in regions of the United States where production of biopharmaceuticals, biofuels, and other biobased chemicals and products tends to cluster. As manufacturing in the life sciences industry continues to transition from a traditional to a more high-tech, skills-intensive array of processes and techniques, companies can benefit from a workforce endowed with a core skills set and additional, targeted skills acquired through hands-on, collaborative, and on-site training programs. The role community colleges are playing in educating and training the middle skills workforce to meet the demand in the biomanufacturing industry was the focus of the 12th annual Community College Program at the 2015 BIO International Convention, June 16, 2015, in Philadelphia, PA.
According to a recent report, for the 5-year period 2013–2018, jobs for manufacturing production technicians in the biotechnology sector in the state of California are projected to increase 9%; this figure includes an 8% rise in jobs for biological technicians and an 18% increase for chemical technicians. 1 These are characterized as “middle skills” jobs. These workers need baseline skills in communication, organization, aseptic methods, and quality control and assurance, for example. They may also require specialized skills, such as in chemistry, biology, Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP), validation, and data entry. 2 Programs such as the Northeast Biomanufacturing Center and Collaborative (NBC 2 ), Bio-Link, and BioNetwork, which design, develop the infrastructure and curricula for, and guide community colleges in implementing hands-on biomanufacturing education and training programs, as well as forming collaborations with industry partners, are expanding and evolving to meet the workforce needs of the biosciences industry and target the growth and changes taking place in the biomanufacturing sector.
Regional Biomanufacturing Training Programs
NBC 2 has established education and training centers at community colleges throughout the northeastern US and at seven regional hubs located near bioeconomy clusters nationwide. It currently has 130 biomanufacturing programs. Originally funded in 2005 through a National Science Foundation (NSF) Advanced Technological Education (ATE) grant, the Collaborative works in partnership with the US Department of Labor's Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training initiative (TAA-CCCT) and Community College Consortium for Bioscience Credentials (c3bc). It has worked with more than 180 global manufacturers and offers manufacturing programs in the following areas: biotechnology, biopharmaceuticals, pharmaceuticals and medical devices, food manufacturing, biofuels/bioenergy/biomass, nutraceuticals, green chemistry, and sustainable energy practices.
NBC 2 's newly introduced community college certificate programs in Biotechnology, Biomanufacturing, and Sustainable Energy “reflect the growth of the bioeconomy into crossover industries and the need to educate students with Bachelor's degrees, incumbent workers, and others in the community in hands-on biotechnology/biomanufacturing technologies,” says Sonia Wallman, Executive Director and Principal Investigator (PI) of NBC 2 .
Bio-Link is a NSF-funded ATE center located in San Francisco, CA. Its mission is to strengthen and expand biotechnology technician education at community and technical colleges nationwide. It pursues this goal through five main activities: building national collaborative networks of educators, industry, and community members; supporting community college and high school instruction; involving industry in biotechnology education; disseminating information; and institutionalizing biotechnology programs at schools and colleges. One of Bio-Link's Co-PI's, Dr. Linnea Fletcher, is Chair of the Biotechnology Department at Austin Community College, in Texas. Students pursuing certificates and degrees in biotechnology at ACC take classes to develop skills in core areas including basic laboratory, math, and computer skills, ethics, quality assurance and quality control principles, and teamwork, and in more specialized skills such as genetic engineering, protein purification, cell culture, regulations, bioinformatics, and documentation. Students receive hands-on training in techniques and instrument systems for performing sequencing, chromatography, microarray analysis, cell culture, imaging analysis, flow cytometry, and real-time PCR, for example.
Dr. Fletcher described the new partnership between the biotechnology program at ACC and the Texas Life-Science Collaboration Center, a biotechnology incubator located near the college's Round Rock campus. Funds totaling $4.9 million from the state of Texas enabled ACC to construct an 8,500 square-foot wet lab this year at the campus, part of which operates under cGMP conditions, which provides opportunities for hands-on training for students, incubation and contract services for industry partners, and an industry setting in which student interns and professional researchers can work together.
The North Carolina Community College System provides biomanufacturing education and training through a statewide program, BioNetwork, which provides industry-relevant on-site, virtual, laboratory, and classroom experiences. BioNetwork maintains four facilities that provide hands-on training in a simulated industrial environment, including a natural products laboratory, an aseptic training suite, a food laboratory, and an analytical laboratory. BioNetwork trains incumbent, transitional, and pre-hire workers in short courses open to the public and through customized courses offered through a partner program, NCWorks Customized Training, which provides state-funded customized training through the North Carolina Community College System for companies experiencing job growth, technology enhancement, or productivity enhancement. In addition to industry training, BioNetwork also provides outreach and engagement activities that train faculty and students in K12, community college, and university settings in ways that incorporate industry skills into educational programming.
“From 2001–2012, North Carolina experienced a 30.9% increase in bioscience jobs, compared to 1% growth in the state's private sector during that same period,” Maria Pharr, EdD, Executive Director of BioNetwork, told workshop attendees. The more than 600 biotechnology companies in North Carolina have an estimated total of 60,000 employees and experienced 7% employment growth during the recent economic recession. To prepare skilled workers for this industry sector, the North Carolina Community College System has worked in tandem with biotechnology and life science companies in the state to identify, develop, and deliver training and education according to their needs.
The Degree Inflation Phenomenon
Matt Sigelman, CEO of Burning Glass Technologies (Boston, MA), spoke about what is known as the “credentials gap,” credential or degree inflation, or “upcredentialing.” Middle skills jobs in biomanufacturing are a good example of this widening credentials gap, represented as the percentage of job postings requiring a Bachelor's degree versus the percentage of job holders with a Bachelor's degree.
“Many jobs are undergoing profound degree inflation,” says Sigelman. “Sometimes this reflects more complex work, but sometimes there is no difference. A middle skills job requiring a Bachelor's degree is still a middle skills job.”
The breakdown of minimum educational requirements for the middle skills workforce, according to Burning Glass, based on employer job postings for January-December 2013, was 34% Bachelor's degree, 28% high school, 27% unspecified, 9% post-secondary or Associate degree, and 2% graduate or professional degree.
Employers are using a Bachelor's degree as a “skills proxy,” says Sigelman, for lack of a better tool to evaluate job candidates. With greater educational requirements come higher salaries and more difficulty finding appropriate workers for middle skills bioscience jobs. Sigelman sees this as an opportunity for community colleges to educate graduates able to compete in the middle skills job market if they align their training with the job market and teach specific skills. While a job posting may call for a Bachelor's degree, Sigelman notes that Bachelor's degree programs in biology and chemistry are less likely to teach skills such as GMP, GLP, use and maintenance of laboratory equipment, inspection, data entry, and validation.