Page 14 - NCBWJourney.15_Flat

I14n January 2013, at a national meeting of participants and
stakeholders held at Biotech Place in Winston-Salem, NC,
the Community College Consortium for Biosciences Cre-
dentials (c3bc), an organization funded through the Trade Adjust-
ment Assistance Community College Career Training (TAACCCT)
program, officially launched. Its goals:
?? Improve workplace training through recruitment testing, The c3bc is a multistate consortium
aptitude assessment, course redesigns, better outreach and of 12 community colleges engaged
more retention. in an educational and training initia-
?? Introduce portable, industry-recognized credentials tive funded by the U.S. Department
into training.
?? Build community college capacity for education that of Labor under grant TC-
meets employer needs. 23761-12-60-A-37. Under
?? Add infrastructure and build internships. the c3bc, community col-
leges coordinate to support
nationwide strategies to help

“Biosciences offer a bright and shining star; the people obtain employment in
jobs will be here. Bioscience affects everyday liv- high-wage, high-skill occu-
ing: Is your food safe? Are your medicines safe? Is pations, such as biotechnol-
the future going to be more in biofuels? We need to ogy, biomanufacturing, and
care because the bioscience industry needs skilled
medical devices.

workers. In today’s swiftly changing economy, an Hilda Solis, former U.S. La-
ever-changing industry requires hard skills to keep up. bor Secretary, said “nearly
In addition to developing current workforce skills, our con- half of all job openings in the next de-
cept enables those with four-year degrees to quickly gain cade will be ‘middle-skill’ - requiring
industry-recognized credentials - all equipped with hands- less than a four-year degree but more
on knowledge to perform capably on day one,” said Russ than a high school diploma.” She

Read, executive director of the National Center for sees the grant programs as “tickets

Biotechnology Workforce and c3bc Project Director. to employment.”

Twelve Partners Concentrate Work In Four Distinct Hubs

All the schools in the consortium, working with 45 companies and employers, teamed up with other
high-performing colleges. Across the nation, students were learning hands-on with industry partners,
developing core skills in bioscience to obtain “industry-recognized” credentials.

Learning Bioscience
Accelerates completion time with improved prior Develops new courses and credentials in the
learning assessment; removes institutional barriers; Biosciences with revised laboratory skills standards.
adds new, technology enhanced instructional mate- San Francisco City College, lead institution (also
rials. Forsyth Tech, lead institution, works with Ala- home of the NSF national Bio-Link center) working
mance and Rowan Cabarrus community colleges, to with Madison and Austin community colleges, estab-
pilot a new modular learning lab, with assessments lishes industry-recognized credentials and harmo-
conducted and duplicated nationally. nized skill standards

Biomanufacturing Medical Devices
Develops new biomanufacturing courses, credentials New skill standards pus stackable, latticed credentials
and teaching materials in partnership with industry. help trade-impacted workers get high-wage, high-skill
Montgomery County Community Colllege, lead in- jobs. Ivy Tech lead institution coordinates with St.
stitution (also home of NSF biomanufacturing center Petersburg and Salt Lake community colleges to work
NBC2) with Bucks County and Los Angeles Valley with Medical Device companies, trade organizations,
community colleges, works to stack credentials and and more stakeholders to develop skill set matrices in
access local career paths. five functional areas.