2008 Woodie Awards
College awarded funding for biotech education
Industry-driven curriculum to create regional workforce
Lou Sian
Date created: 10/25/04 Section: NEWS
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Skyline College received a $700,000 award recently from the California Community College Chancellor's Office. The award enhances its bio-manufacturing education and meets a burgeoning need for trained workers over the next two years.
The glut of biotechnology jobs stems from an unprecedented number of Food and Drug Administration approvals of products manufactured in the Bay Area.
At least 1,800 jobs will need filling as companies' ramp up their bio-pharmaceutical manufacturing.
"This award will ultimately lead to great jobs for Bay Area workers and support a phenomenal industry that is saving lives," said Director William Watson for Skyline College's Center for Workforce Development in an Oct. 6 press release.
The outlook for employers and employees in the region is more than hopeful; it drafts in the wake of three successful cohorts begun in the spring of 2003. In partnership with Peninsula Works and Genentech (and for a time with Airport Industry Dislocated Worker Program), 56 students have been placed in either paid internships or hired in the biotechnology field, according to staff assistant Adolfo Leiva for Skyline College's Center for Workforce Development.
Candidates were selected if they lost their jobs because of the economy. Many in the cohort had jobs in the airline industry before 9/11 or were in high-tech careers before the dot com bust. They range in age from the early 20s to the late 60s.
In South San Francisco, the birthplace of biotechnology, Genentech headquarters tracks a slightly different kind of statistic. Of those hired as paid interns (41) from the three cohorts, 61 percent or 25 people have been hired as permanent, full time employees; and managers have requisitioned for more interns.
"The managers have said the candidates do great work," said College Programs Staffing Associate Pam Leung for Genentech. "They know the industry before they come to work from their Skyline classes. The managers are asking for graduates from the next class."
The glut of biotechnology jobs stems from an unprecedented number of Food and Drug Administration approvals of products manufactured in the Bay Area.
At least 1,800 jobs will need filling as companies' ramp up their bio-pharmaceutical manufacturing.
"This award will ultimately lead to great jobs for Bay Area workers and support a phenomenal industry that is saving lives," said Director William Watson for Skyline College's Center for Workforce Development in an Oct. 6 press release.
The outlook for employers and employees in the region is more than hopeful; it drafts in the wake of three successful cohorts begun in the spring of 2003. In partnership with Peninsula Works and Genentech (and for a time with Airport Industry Dislocated Worker Program), 56 students have been placed in either paid internships or hired in the biotechnology field, according to staff assistant Adolfo Leiva for Skyline College's Center for Workforce Development.
Candidates were selected if they lost their jobs because of the economy. Many in the cohort had jobs in the airline industry before 9/11 or were in high-tech careers before the dot com bust. They range in age from the early 20s to the late 60s.
In South San Francisco, the birthplace of biotechnology, Genentech headquarters tracks a slightly different kind of statistic. Of those hired as paid interns (41) from the three cohorts, 61 percent or 25 people have been hired as permanent, full time employees; and managers have requisitioned for more interns.
"The managers have said the candidates do great work," said College Programs Staffing Associate Pam Leung for Genentech. "They know the industry before they come to work from their Skyline classes. The managers are asking for graduates from the next class."
