Bioscience Laboratory Workforce Skills: Next Steps

November 18, 2013

• Round 2, DOL TAACCCT Award to Forsyth Tech CC– Community College Consortium for Bioscience Credentials– 12 colleges, 3 centers

• Grant Strategies to assist TAACCCT workers– Improve and expand recruitment– Harmonize a set of bioscience core skills across 3 hubs– Accelerate completion time in credentialing programs – Build capacity for bioscience education

• Harmonize a set of Core Competencies across 3 sector hubs– Biomanufacturing

• NBC2

– Medical Devices (new) – Bioscience Laboratory

• Bio-Link

Bioscience Consortium Grant, pg 16

What are skill standards?

What are skill standards?

• Skill standards are performance specifications that identify the knowledge, skills and abilities an individual needs to succeed in the workplace.…….

• Skill standards provide measurable benchmarks of skill and performance. They answer two critical questions: – What do workers need to know and be able to do to

succeed in the workplace?– How do we know when students are performing workplace

skills well?’

Why skill standards?

• Assist educators in designing curriculum and assist in partnerships with industry.

• Provide a common basis for granting credentials,

granting portability of skills across geographic areas, companies and educational institutions

• Providing a resource for students and entry level workers to “know what they know”.

History of Published Bioscience Skill Standards

• EDC (1994-1997)• Agricultural Biotechnology Technician (1994)• Washington State (2007 updated from 2000)– R&D, Regulatory Affairs, Manufacturing

• NBC2 (2005 with later updates)– Biomanufacturing, 10 job titles

• Bioscience Competency Model (Pyramid) (2007)

Skill Standards Resource PageBio-Link web site, search: “draft core”

• Previous efforts focused on completeness• Current effort focuses on determining Core

Bioscience Consortium Grant, pg 16

Laboratory Skills

Biomanufacturing

Biomedical devices

?

Why this effort to define core?

• Give educators the tools to focus and emphasize the skills and knowledge needed by every technician– Develop courses, certificates, modules, etc. – Avoid programs developed for the wrong reasons that

are not aligned with industry– Drive authentic assessments

• Define skills and knowledge for entry level positions– Students know and can articulate what they know– Industry recognizes what students know

• Possibly develop credential (certificate)

Austin Community College Plan

Bioscience Consortium Grant, pg 16

Three sets of skill standards

• Biomanufacturing Hub– Sonia Wallman, NBC2

• Medical Devices Hub– Sengyong Lee

• Lab Skills Hub– Elaine Johnson, Bio-Link

Bioscience Laboratory Core Skills Draft

Draft of Common Core based on:

2007 Biotechnology and Biomedical Skill Standards; Copyright 2007http://www.bio-link.org/home/shoreline-community-college/biotechnology-skill-standards

Bioscience Competency Model: U.S. Department of Laborwww.careeronestop.org/COMPETENCYMODEL/pyramid.aspx?BIOSCI=Y

DRAFT: Common Core Bioscience Laboratory Skill Standards

Draft Draft

NBC2: Northeast Biomanufacturing Center

Skill Standards Resource PageBio-Link web site, search: “draft core”

Medical Device Hub

From “Skill Standards: A Primer”

• Graham Slee, the head of the voluntary National Training Board (NTB) of Australia,visited the United States in 1991 and gave several speeches and seminars on the topic of developing a skills standards system. Consistently, he said that the single most important lesson to be learned from that Board’s work is the importance of developing common language and the attendant common levels of recognized knowledge and skills.

• http://wdr.doleta.gov/opr/fulltext/95-voluntary.pdf