The skills to pay the bills, 20 years ago, was the catch phrase that started the BioTechnical Institute of Maryland, Inc. (BTI) a non-profit located in Baltimore, MD.   Margaret Penno, Ph.D,  a researcher at Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, had the idea that as the regions bioscience enterprise develops, everyone should be included.  In other words, a rising tide raises all boats.  Since its founding, BTI has trained entry-level lab technicians in R & D, production and bio-manufacturing positions at institutions like Johns Hopkins and at local biotech companies such as Emergent Biosolutions and Becton Dickenson to name a few employers of our graduates. Three assumptions are the foundations of BTI. The first is that there are good people that are under and unemployed that can do the work if trained properly.  The second, is that those trained cannot afford the cost or time constraints of a college education. They need to work and BTI does not charge a tuition. And third, as biomanufacturing matures, college graduates will not want to do the repetitive critical tasks associated with “working on the factory floor.”  As it turns out, these assumptions were correct. read more

In the first blog of this series, we talked about the rationale and need to develop a well-trained and highly skilled biotech workforce to support R & D and bio-manufacturing in Maryland.  Now, I want to highlight what our State is doing to strengthen a basic workforce needed to support our rapidly maturing bio-based industry sector. My focus is on the career path for the underemployed worker trying to gain access into this new and exciting business of biotechnology. Besides, the 4- and 2-year colleges won’t produce enough workers to fill the future void.  At a recent Mid-Atlantic Biology Research and Career Network Conference held at Loyola College (www.loyola.edu/mabrc) ,  Kelly M. Schulz, Maryland Secretary of Labor, Licensing and Regulation (DLLR) stated that in Maryland, there are only 2,300 new graduates in 2017, with B.S. degrees in the biosciences.  Given that there are approximately 2,260 life sciences businesses including more than 500 core biotech firms in Maryland, is that enough of an entry-level talent pool to sustain the nee   Probably not, especially considering that a proportion of these new graduates will not stay in Maryland following completion of their degrees. read more

This is the first in a three-part series about building and retaining talent in support of our growing bioscience sector.

Maryland’s bioscience community is expanding and maturing which is great news for our state.  Our bio-based ecosystem is healthy and getting positive exposure locally, nationally and internationally. Expanding and strengthening this sector to make it a key economic driver for the state is a worthy goal.  In fact, the state economic development folks have a mantra, to be number 3 by the year 2023, that is to be the third biggest life sciences region in the US, and this makes perfect sense as a realistic actionable goal. read more