MassBio is launching Bioversity, a nonprofit aimed at training and upskilling workers, in an effort to reduce a facilities labor crisis and talent gap affecting the life sciences industry, according to a press release. The initiative highlights wider labor concerns around the country, with many organizations unable to fill facility service and operation positions.
MassBio will also open a 4,000-square-foot workforce training center in September, at the Southline Boston development in Dorchester, Massachusetts, that will provide short-term programs for high school graduates. It says its initial training curriculum will begin in early 2024, with graduates ready to immediately enter into entry-level life science roles, namely facilities management and lab operations.
“After further in-depth conversations with employers of all sizes, it was clear that the fastest way to deepen and diversify the talent pipeline was to develop and run short-term certification programs to train high school graduates for entry-level roles that can be pathways into careers and further educational attainment,” said Zach Stanley, MassBio’s former chief of corporate affairs and Bioversity’s newly appointed executive director, in the release.
Biodiversity plans to graduate 100 students through its first year, and hopes to scale to 170 annual graduates by 2028. It says this would double the state’s current annual output of job-ready professionals from training programs. The organization also stated that the eight-to-12 week training and certification programs will be offered at no cost, and that students will be provided a stipend to offset lost work hours and pay for necessary wraparound services.
Stanley says this output and its speed differentiates it from other life science training programs in the U.S., where programs last over six months and only graduate about 30 students each year, according to BioSpace.
Founded in 1985, MassBio is one of the oldest biotech trade associations in the nation, with membership including many of those at biotech organizations operating in Massachusetts, including Biogen, Abcam, Boston Scientific, Thermo Fisher, Moderna and Genzyme.
