Biotechnology Department

2004-2005 WIB Biotechnology Grant from the ETA (Employment and Training Administration) U.S. Department of Labor

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See also Biotech funds head to Ohlone College expected to be a main training provider.

President's High Growth Job Training Initiative: Bay Area Biotech Consortium Career Pathway Project

Grant amount: $2,000,000 – 2 years

Grantee: Alameda County Workforce Investment Board

Key partners:

Alameda and San Mateo County Workforce Boards; Genentech; Alza; Baxter; Chiron; Abgenix; Skyline Community College; Ohlone Community College; Opportunities Industrialization Center West; Adecco; and Gruber and Pereira Associates

Location of grant activities: Bay Area, California

Challenge:

With an estimated 85,000 biotech-related manufacturing jobs already in the Bay Area and the industry continuing to grow, there are expected to be over 1,500 new jobs available for entry-level and skilled biotech workers in the next 18 months.

Addressing the Challenge:

In response to growing employer demand for biotech manufacturing workers, the Alameda County Workforce Investment Board proposes to develop career pathways in biotech manufacturing, facilities management, quality control, and product engineering. The objective of this proposal is to further expand and refine a successful pilot conducted by the San Mateo Workforce Investment Board to train entry-level biotech manufacturing workers.

This program will take laid-off workers from the aerospace, airline, and IT industries and retrain them for biotechnology positions including quality control and product engineering. It will also recruit low skilled individuals and train them for entry-level positions as biotech manufacturing technicians. Another partner in this program, the Opportunities Industrialization Center West, will support this effort by providing remediation skills in English, math, and employment readiness.

Projected Outcomes:

• Train up to 150 individuals for entry-level, pathway positions as biotech manufacturing technicians at wages of $35,000 - $40,000 per year
• Retrain 40 dislocated engineers from the airline, aerospace, and IT sectors for career pathway positions in facilities management, quality control, and product engineering at wages of $50,000 - $80,000 per year