The state’s budding biotechnology industry needs skilled workers. The University of Rhode Island plans to supply them.
URI this month began recruiting students to enroll in a new Bachelor of Science program in biotechnology manufacturing. Classes will begin this fall at the Shepard Building on URI’s Providence campus.
The school has developed curriculum with help from the state’s large biotech manufacturers, primarily Amgen Inc. and Dow Biopharmaceutical Contract Manufacturing Services. Both companies have plans to hire hundreds of new workers in coming years as they ramp up production.
The degree program will immerse students in biology, science and math during their freshman year, followed by a summer internship where they would get hands-on training at a company such as Amgen or Dow.
Students who successfully complete the internship likely would be hired on full time, and would finish their degree on a part-time basis through the help of tuition reimbursement from their employers.
“It’s crucial in biotechnology to have a work force that is prepared to enter the industry and hit the ground running,” said Rosemarie Rung, a Dow spokeswoman. “We’ve shared with URI what our needs are so they know how big the pipeline needs to be.”
Dow now employs about 100 workers at its facility in Smithfield and plans to double that number within the next two years as it expands manufacturing capacity there. The company produces cell lines for smaller biotech firms that develop new drug candidates but don’t have the means to manufacture them.
Dow has longer-range plans to build a new facility in Smithfield that would add hundreds more workers, although those plans have stalled because of a difficult economic environment for parent company Dow Chemical, Rung said.
Amgen’s thirst for skilled labor is far greater. The Thousand Oaks, Calif.-based
company already employs 900 workers at its West Greenwich plant and plans to
hire another 250 by the end of this year, according to company spokeswoman Barbara
Bronson Gray. The 206,000-square-foot facility in January began commercial production
of the company’s rheumatoid arthritis drug Enbrel.
A $500 million plant
expected in 2005
Amgen expects to complete construction of a $500 million, 375,000-square-foot plant in 2005 on the same campus – also for Enbrel production – although it has not yet said how many workers that plant will employ.
URI officials said the new degree program should be able to quickly funnel qualified workers to Amgen, Dow and other drug manufacturers by blitzing students early on with a foundation in science and math.
The curriculum also includes introductory classes such as “Biotechnology Manufacturing Methods.”
“We will be satisfying the companies’ immediate needs to ramp up production, but also developing an educated work force that will stay with them,” said Edmund J. Ferszt, associate dean of the URI’s Alan Shawn Feinstein College of Continuing Education.
URI is planning to enroll 15 students in the program this fall and likely would expand enrollment in future years. Tuition of $9,500 (the same for state and non-state residents) covers both semesters during the first year, plus the summer internship.
Organizers say they are targeting older, “career changers,” rather than recent high school graduates.
“It’s a great way to get people started on a new career in a relatively short period of time – without going into debt,” said Virginia E. Nardone, director of special programs at the URI’s College of Continuing Education.
Specifically, the school expects to garner interest from workers in New England’s traditional manufacturing sectors, which have been laying off employees in droves.
“I think (the companies) see a pool of potential workers who have the work
ethic and understand what it’s like to work in a plant, but don’t necessarily
have the background in science, math and biology,” Ferszt said.
Advertising campaign
in area newspapers
URI began advertising the program last week through newspaper ads in Rhode Island, Worcester, Mass., and as far south as New London, Conn.
URI officials say the Providence campus is centrally located to Amgen and Dow, as well as Pfizer Inc.’s large manufacturing facility in Groton, Conn. and smaller biopharmaceutical manufacturers in northern Rhode Island and Worcester.
Ferszt said URI expects that Amgen, Dow and other companies will make in-kind contributions of lab equipment and materials as the program evolves. The school is retrofitting a biology lab in the Shepard Building downtown to host lab work for the program.
Eventually, state economic-development officials would like to build a $10 million training facility, focused exclusively on training people to work at biopharmaceutical outfits.
The Legislature’s fiscal 2004 budget includes $300,000 toward design of that facility, the location of which has not been announced. Gov. Don Carcieri and his economic-development team requested the funding to help create a ready-made work force for the state’s biotech sector.
The URI degree program received a $100,000 grant from the Human Resource Investment
Council and $25,000 from Amgen.
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