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.”

Trading in their dot com passwords or their uniforms as airline employees, security screeners and mechanics, the new bio-manufacturing employees work predominantly in the production operation groups at Genentech. They work as bio-processing technicians, package inspectors, lab services technicians or media preparers.

The company is expanding, Leung said. It expects to hire 500 people for its Vacaville location and for the South San Francisco site, they would like to build a pipeline through which interns can convert to full-time employment.

“It’s great,” Leung said. “One of the early graduates from the first cohort stopped by the office with his baby. We’ll see former students in the employee cafeteria. They’re appreciative. They say they’re happy to work here.”

Although Leung won’t say, Watson said bio-manufacturing employees can expect to make $35,000 to $40,000 a year and more with over-time. The fourth cohort will complete the 12-week certificate program on Nov. 19. Although not yet finalized, it’s anticipated another cohort will start on Feb. 23, 2005.

But Watson is decidedly firm to point out that past successes established Skyline’s track record on which to expand existing partnerships and create new alliances.

The Chancellor’s Award supports regional economic development through an initiative called Industry Driven Regional Collaboratives. The college will partner with Bay Area bio-manufacturing firms and Bay Area BioSciences Center, a 175-member industry association. And plans are underway to build a regional career ladder in bio-manufacturing in collaboration with Northern California Biotechnology Center.

In addition, the faculty will receive timely training in order to better prepare students in a field that is rapidly evolving.

“Students who successfully complete the training will find work in an industry that is saving lives,” Watson said. “The companies are manufacturing life-saving medicines that improve the lives of people around the world.”

For further information, contact the Center for Workforce Development at (650) 738-7035 or visit the Web site at: http://www.skylinecollege.edu/workforce