Establishing Testbeds for Biopharmaceutical Manufacturing Workforce Development in Louisiana, North Carolina, Maryland, Delaware, and Texas

This test bed project will focus on the ability of four institutions to motivate and train the future biopharmaceutical manufacturing workforce. This will be pursued by establishing proven workforce development testbeds at select institutions.

Industry Need

Companies do not have access to enough workers with relevant skills and so programs that motivate and train as many individuals as possible are needed.

Solution

Establish and install physical testbeds at four institutions sufficient to enable hands-on biopharmaceutical manufacturing training
Update an existing testbed at Texas A&M’s National Center for Therapeutics Manufacturing to allow it to introduce single use technology
Transfer, license, and conduct train-the-trainer on a successful biopharmaceutical manufacturing curriculum from Texas A&M to participating organizations

As part of this work, the team will:

Foster collaboration with established training providers
Share and transfer vetted and highly utilized curriculum
Develop institutional subject matter expertise to enable the institutions to grow the talent pool ready for entry-level jobs in vaccine and biologics manufacturing

Outputs/Deliverables

Sites purchased, installed and received training on their ACBM-related equipment.
Curricula licensing agreements were executed between NCTM and institutions and curriculum materials, lab protocols, and instructor-specific information were distributed to institutions for virtual review.
Faculty from institutions performed a hands-on train-the-trainer session on the Advanced Certificate in Biopharmaceutical Manufacturing (ACBM).

Impacts

The participating institutions will have increased faculty expertise in biopharmaceutical manufacturing which will directly impact students at their home institutions.

Once these testbeds are implemented at institutions and courses are offered routinely, more individuals will be trained via these testbeds and will be ready for careers in biopharmaceutical manufacturing.