|
|
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
|
News "BioNetwork Bus funded by Golden LEAF visits Beaufort County Community College" This classroom comes to students. A mobile classroom - a classroom instructors said will provide vital experience for students looking to enter the biotechnology industry - stopped at Beaufort County Community College on Thursday. Shared by the state's community colleges, the BioNetwork Mobile Laboratory - also called the BioNetwork Bus - is a stop-and-go, state-of-the-art chemical laboratory on wheels. "This is part of an economic-development initiative to bring biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies to North Carolina," Ana McClanahan, lead biotechnology instructor at the college, said Thursday. "We tell the companies 'If you come here, we will train students to whatever protocols you want.' That makes us very attractive to them." Golden LEAF started the program in an effort to retool the state's work force following the collapse of the tobacco market, according to BioNetwork Bus instructor Scott Hallam. "Biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies are coming to North Carolina because there is a work force," Hallam said while the lab was parked at BCCC. "They want people to work in operations ... people with two-year associate's degrees to work in the manufacturing process. With this lab, we can provide hands-on experience with specific equipment that is used in those industries." The mobile lab's equipment lines both sides of the interior of a bus. The equipment includes microscopes and centrifuges. Since it hit the road in April 2006, the bus has logged at least 15,000 miles driving from the mountains to the coast as it visited the state's 58 community colleges. "We needed to make it mobile because this is the only one for 58 colleges," said Hallam, who has spent 17 years in the biotechnology industry. "We aren't here to compete with the community colleges. This is designed to supplement what they already have. But you can read about chemistry all you want and see it on the overhead, but there is no substitute for experience." Beaufort County Community College has had a one-and-one agreement with Pitt Community College. Under that agreement, a student studied for one year at each institution and received an associate's degree in biotechnology. Bringing the mobile lab to Beaufort County is part of a plan to have biotechnology students do all of the work needed to earn their degrees at BCCC. Experience, like that provided by the mobile lab, is as good as a year of study in college, McClanahan said. "In this field, a two year associate's degree plus two years' work experience is as good as a four-year degree," she said. "If we can train students on the equipment using this lab, it's that much easier for them to get jobs." Getting people jobs is part of what the mobile lab is all about, Hallam said. But that isn't the only role the BioNetwork Bus plays, he said. It also provides specialized training for workers already in the biotechnology industry. Companies may arrange to use the mobile lab to offer courses to their workers, just as the community colleges arrange for the mobile lab to visit their students. "The whole focus is to get people jobs," Hallam said. "So many jobs have been lost in North Carolina, especially because of the decline of tobacco, and those people need jobs and need training. The work force is here, it just needs retooling. That's one of the things we can do with the mobile lab." Hallam said community colleges in eastern North Carolina have been the first to "jump on the bandwagon" by inviting the mobile lab to supplement their course offerings. The bus will return to Beaufort County at least three times this year, including an appearance Oct. 23-24 to introduce high-school students to careers in biotechnology and pharmaceuticals. "Short courses with hands-on experience ... that's what we do," Hallam said.
Golden LEAF Foundation |