Workforce Updates
On July 28, 2023, five community college faculty members from across the U.S. wrapped up NCBW’s BETA Skills Summer Fellowship by presenting their findings. This immersive eight-week professional development fellowship allowed faculty to step out of their academic and scientific roles to see firsthand what skills students need to succeed in the rapidly evolving bioscience workforce.
Read More Here about the Fellows and host companies, or to access their presentations
Organized by InnovATEBIO and the National Science Foundation, the first-of-its-kind Envisioning the Next Bioscience Workforce Summit drew 250 thought leaders and practitioners from industry, academia, and government to consider how to develop a workforce that will maintain US leadership in all phases of bioscience endeavor.
Read more about the speakers, agenda, and participant reflections.
NCBW, in collaboration with the Kansas-based Bioscience Core Skills Institute, launched a week-long in-person professional development program to introduce and pilot new BETA Skills micro-credentials. Twelve bioscience educators from universities, community colleges, and high schools across the U.S. worked towards developing and evaluating micro-credentials for three critical BETA Skills: Good Documentation, Problem-Solving, and Regulatory Audit Communications.
Read More Here
Read More Here
SciTech Lecture Series
SciTech Interview with Jordan Link, ProKidney
June 2023Russ Read catches up with Forsyth Tech Grad Jordan Link after the 2023 World Stem Cell Summit to talk about her role as manufacturing supervisor for biotechnology company, ProKidney, her academic and career path, and how lab skills impact patients’ lives.
https://youtu.be/XI25llzeW44
SciTech Interview with Jennifer Coulombe
March 2023As V.P. of Industry Partnerships and Continuous Innovation at Forsyth Tech, Jennifer discusses how Forsyth Tech’s culture of continuous improvement benefits students and industry.
https://youtu.be/mpzZKLK_IdQ
SciTech Interview with Sean Killebrew
March 2023As a military veteran, and graduate of Forsyth Tech’s Broadcasting Production Technologies Program, Sean discusses how working at the CTLE influenced his career.
https://youtu.be/ciJVsNX2h1g
SciTech Interview with Dr. Steven R. Bauer
February 2023Russ Read and Sean Killebrew talk with Dr. Steven R. Bauer, who recently joined REMDO and WFIRM after 31 years as an FDA official, most recently as the Chief of its Cellular and Tissue Therapy Branch (CTTB).
https://youtu.be/5S08C7YeooE
SciTech Interview with Dr. Dr. J. Donald deBethizy
January 2023Dr. J. Donald deBethizy discusses his experiences with biotech in North Carolina and his current role as a Board Director at Argent in Copenhagen, Denmark.
https://youtu.be/VRJb1QQxbg8
The National Center for the Biotechnology Workforce (NCBW) provides leadership and a collaborative platform that directly connects industry, educators, and workforce developers to meet the nation’s ever-evolving bioscience workforce needs.
With its focus on capacity building, best practices, professional development, and skills standard generation, NCBW has led several federally funded bioscience workforce initiatives that both promote and build dynamic, on-the-ground, regional and national communities of practice that engage bioscience employers, colleges, trade and workforce organizations, and advanced manufacturing institutes.
Currently, NCBW leads the NSF ATE Skills for Biomedical Emerging Technology Applications (BETA Skills) project which explores advanced technological education for technician-specialists working in convergent technology and is a partner in InnovATEBIO, the NSF ATE National Center for Biotechnology Education, focusing on its Leadership Institute and on assessing emerging technology skill training needs.
Since 2009, NCBW’s public SciTech Lecture Series has attracted a large and diverse monthly audience. Students, faculty, entrepreneurs, scientists, and other interested participants from throughout the community have participated in more than eighty sessions.
NCBW is also home to a state-of-the-art Analytical and Molecular Skills Development Laboratory which provides advanced training and internships for students, as well as equipment and bench space rental to small companies and researchers. AMSDL is a key component of NCBW’s professional development programs which attract bioscience instructors and selected high-school science teachers from across the United States and beyond.
