The Northeast Biomanufacturing Center and Collaborative: Building Local Community College-Biomanufacturer Partnerships to Provide A Sustainable Infrastructure for Biomanufacturing

Montgomery County Community College, Blue Bell PA

Investigators

Abstract

Biomanufacturers are building and expanding throughout the nation. The resulting commercial biomanufacturing facilities hire between 400 and 600 employees, at least fifty percent of whom are technicians in ten biomanufacturing jobs; the industry reports a ten to fifteen percent attrition rate per year. Community college-biomanufacturer partnerships create a stable, local supply of entry level and replacement technicians and an articulated career pathway that begins in high school, continues to community college and then to university, with opportunities for apprenticeships, internships and employment. The partnership can also provide for incumbent technician training for the biomanufacturer at the neighboring community college that can sustain both the biomanufacturer and the biomanufacturing program. Finally, related crossover industries that use the same skill set have developed in the last few years including the biomanufacture of biofuels, replacement organs, and stem cells. Working together, community college-biomanufacturer partnerships provide support for a local bioeconomy. The NBC2 has been working for over three years to develop the local biomanufacturing education and training and workforce infrastructure in six Hubs throughout the northeast. The center has developed hands-on instructional materials for the ten biomanufacturing jobs based on global biopharmaceutical manufacturing industry skill standards. It has developed BIOMAN, an annual biomanufacturing conference for faculty and teacher participants. There is a website at www.biomanufacturing.org for dissemination of activities and products. The center has mentored the establishment of biomanufacturing programs and courses at community colleges, high schools and universities in the northeast and nation. Its relationships with biomanufacturers can sustain the biomanufacturing programs that have been built. In this renewal of the NBC2, the center is taking curriculum and instructional materials for the ten biomanufacturing jobs to the next level, by creating a hands-on laboratory manual, an industry-written textbook, short courses for incumbent technicians, and instructional ancillaries. It continues to expand the website, adding a career website, and continues to offer the BIOMAN conference. It is aggressively building local biomanufacturing infrastructure by focusing on high school students through Introduction to Biomanufacturing teachers' workshops in a partnership with Bio-Rad, and incumbent technician training through short courses offered by the NBC2's National Biomanufacturing Institute (NBI). The center is bringing in new resources by expanding partnerships to include biomanufacturers and community colleges throughout the nation in southern, mid-western and western clusters directed by community college faculty with expertise in biopharmaceutical biomanufacturing. Through a partnership with the National Institute for Work and Learning of the Academy for Educational Development it is collecting employment data to show the influence of the activities. Intellectual merit: This includes: 1) the development of local learning communities to support the biopharmaceutical manufacturing company's need for biomanufacturing technicians and the student's need for a biomanufacturing educational pathway from high school to community college to universities; 2) a Global Biomanufacturing Curriculum repository based on harmonized biopharmaceutical manufacturing industry skill standards ready for deposit or withdrawal and linked to the Bio-Link Clearinghouse; 3) the use of video, 2nd Life, and gaming technologies to give students a better understanding of large-scale biomanufacturing; 4) the use of skills in biopharmaceutical manufacturing to support the development of local crossover industries such as the biomanufacture of replacement organs, biofuels and stem cells; 5) data on the expansion of biomanufacturing programs, the number of students in these programs and the growth of jobs within the bio-based economy. Broader impact: This includes: 1) creation of strong biomanufacturer-community college partnerships to provide sustainability for the community college program and a local pipeline of employees for the biomanufacturer; 2) emphasis on high school biomanufacturing courses and programs to develop the local pipeline for biomanufacturing; 3) use of new technologies to highlight the differences between large-scale and lab-scale biomanufacturing; 4) on-the-job training for students in 21st century advanced technology apprenticeships and internships; and 5) the creation of a self-sustaining infrastructure for biomanufacturing education and training and the biomanufacturing workforce that supports a growing bioeconomy.