Program Helps Meet the Biotech Job Boom

VENTURA —  Ventura College has quietly, yet quickly, developed an award-winning program designed to feed skilled workers to the region’s growing biotechnology industry.

That industry now employs 5,400 workers countywide, with seven to 10 assistants needed for every research scientist. To meet those employment opportunities, program director Bill Thieman has developed a curriculum combining academic course work with training on specialized laboratory equipment and on-site at local companies.

The 4-year-old program has an enrollment of about 100 students who are studying the genetic makeup of humans and plants.

“We are basically training students in seven job-description categories used at biotechnology companies that are considered entry-level positions but require specific skills with sophisticated equipment,” Thieman said.

He added that instructors Marta de Jesus and Terry Pardee have taken over teaching the courses while he focuses on coordinating the program for a semester.

Their efforts have earned the Student Success Award, an honor bestowed by the California Community College Board of Governors on a program offering students the most potential for success in the 21st century.

Thieman will accept the newly established award April 16 at the Sixth Annual Board of Governors and California Community College Conference in Los Angeles. He also won the 1996 National Assn. of Biology Teachers’ Innovative Teaching in Biotechnology Award.

“This particular project is interesting in that a faculty member initiated it,” said Dean Kaylene Hallberg, from the chancellor’s office of California Community Colleges in Sacramento. “It’s exciting when faculty get involved in initiating projects.”

Hallberg said she also was impressed with the interdisciplinary cooperation that the program solicited. “The comprehensive lab stresses technical skills but has to be preceded by academic preparation being offered not only at the college, but in advanced-placement high school classes as well,” she said.

For now, though, Thieman says most of the program’s students already have college degrees.

“More than 90% of the students in the biotechnology class have a bachelor’s degree in chemistry, engineering, biology or nutrition science, and they’re coming to Ventura College for hands-on skills and to develop familiarity with biotechnology equipment and procedures,” he said.

According to Thieman, graduates of the program could go on to work on such research projects as developing human insulin from single cells, creating products that stimulate blood cell production or devising diagnostic kits for diseases such as AIDS.

Although the market is far greater in biotechnology that deals with human conditions, the most unique part of the Ventura College program focuses on plants, where students learn how to clone asparagus and engineer tomatoes that last.

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“Ventura County still considers itself to be primarily an agricultural community and we expect in the near future for there to be a far greater number of jobs open in plant biotechnology,” Thieman said.

The biotechnology field in general is expected to employ between 35,000 and 100,000 technicians nationwide within the next 10 years. The 400 biotech companies in California produce more than 50% of the industry’s products.

The county has 280 biotechnology companies, the largest being Amgen in Thousand Oaks with 3,000 employees. The Ventura College program now has two students, Yee Yang and Melvin Abara, working in Amgen’s microbiology laboratory.

Abara, who will receive a certificate from the college program in June, has worked in the lab as a temporary employee about six months as an assistant testing bacteria, updating files and tracking yeast and mold growths.

“This job allows me to apply theoretical aspects and ideas from classes with actual methods and instrumentation,” he said. “A lot of times when you come out of college it’s hard to find a job because employers are looking for so many years of experience. But this is allowing me to acquaint myself with materials in the industry.”

And it looks like Abara’s hard work has paid off: He’s been offered a permanent position with Amgen that begins next month.

The college’s biotechnology program started in 1993 with a grant from Amgen. In 1996, Thieman was able to add the plant biotechnology program with two grants, one from the National Science Foundation and the other from the local Hanson Trust Fund.

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Students in the plant biotechnology program will be the first in the state to earn a certificate in plant biotechnology from a community college. The program also trains teachers, mainly science instructors drawn from high school advanced-placement classes.

Several companies--including Biopool International, Baxter Healthcare Corp., and Twyford Plant Laboratories Inc.--have contributed equipment or provided on-site training as part of the Ventura College program.

Moorpark College is establishing a similar program, working with Baxter to provide training.

“Biotechnology gives students an opportunity to use the methods of science and the teamwork-inquiry process to solve significant problems that can improve the well-being and health of humans,” Thieman said.