Thanks to a workforce development grant, the region's bioscience firms could expect a steady flow of technical workers in the not-so-distant future.

The Metro Denver Workforce Innovation in Regional Economic Development - WIRED - Initiative awarded the Larimer County Workforce Center a $125,000 grant to lay the groundwork for development of a bioscience career academy at Fort Collins High School. The grant will bring together Poudre School District and the BioMARC Regional Training Center at Colorado State University to create a model for the academy.

Susan Hunter is taking the lead at FCHS. The 30-year teacher has spent the last 15 years teaching biology, and started thinking about the possibility of a career academy in bioscience after taking attending a course at Front Range Community College made possible by a grant from Amgen. The idea was to teach high school teachers about the bioscience field in hopes that they would then incorporate the elements into their lessons.

Hunter explained that the grant will allow the group to develop the framework for a high school program that will prepare students for entry-level positions in the bioscience industry immediately upon graduation.

"Basically, the whole academy idea is a great opportunity for a number of participants. As a high school teacher, it's about what's best for kids," she said. "Everything we do is geared toward that."

Hunter hopes the program will develop awareness of career opportunities that might not be so obvious. She would like to see the academy take a three-prong focus: a "CSI"-style program that would introduce students to genetic science; a bioscience program; and a health and medical program.

In speaking with industry representatives, Hunter heard that the hardest positions for bioscience firms to fill is not the master's and Ph.D.-level employees but the entry-level technicians. Those techs need certain mathematic and lab skills to be able to successful carry out the required work.

"They can get those skills to earn a very decent living in a field that is rapidly growing," she said.

The plan will not include reinventing the wheel.

"The whole academy idea exists all over the United States," she said. "I want to use the experts in these fields to teach the kids who are interested in knowing it," she said, adding that industry and higher education professionals could come to FCHS to teach various elements of the academy.



First steps

A first step toward defining the academy will be a forum held from Aug. 3 to 7 at CSU. Deanna Scott, director of the BioMARC, helped to pull together experts from around the state and the nation, many of whom have started bioscience career academies of their own.

Scott has been brought into the fold on a consulting basis. She received a $100,000 WIRED grant last year to develop a regional training center to provide researchers and scientists with the business knowledge they need to bring a product to market. The final of three courses under the WIRED grant, focusing on clinical trials, will be held in August. Scott feels that the program is very close to self-sustainability.

Scott was tapped to help the bioscience career academy group because of her knowledge of the WIRED grant requirements and connections in the bioscience industry - many fostered out of the product translation courses.

"It's amazing," she said. "So many people want to help out."

Already, local bioscience firms Inviragen, Tolmar and Array BioPharma have agreed to participate. VWR Scientific Products has offered to provide supplies and equipment. Scott also assembled experts from around the country to participate in the upcoming forum.

"Other states are way ahead of us," Scott said.

The forum is slated to include educational representatives from New Jersey, Arizona and Maryland to discuss how their programs are set up. The WIRED recipients are also planning a trip to Salt Lake City in the near future to visit a career academy program.

"This is only the beginning - exploring how it will look," Hunter said.

She expects that it will take another grant - possibly from the National Science Foundation - to get the academy launched in about two years. Scott added that the WIRED grant will create a stepping stone to access additional funding.

"I really see it as a fabulous opportunity to do what's best for kids, do career development and form great partnerships," she said.



Kristen Tatti covers technology for the Northern Colorado Business Report. She can be reached at 970-221-5400, ext. 219 or ktatti@ncbr.com.