With Hundreds of Bio Industry Jobs Open and Company Expansions Underway, Companies Are Investing in Industry-Intensive Training and Professional Development

PORTLAND, Ore.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–#BioPro–With large company expansions such as Micro Systems Engineering’s upcoming Lake Oswego-area advanced automated manufacturing expansion, Genentech’s Hillsboro Individualized Therapies facility, Bend’s Lonza expansion to build out new suites for the development and clinical manufacturing of drug product intermediates and drug products and cGMP, Eugene’s Cascade Chemistry’s construction to increase cGMP manufacturing capacity, and the arrival of Twist Bioscience’s ‘Factory of the Future’ soon breaking ground in Wilsonville, a surge of open jobs has bio innovation and manufacturing companies in need of skilled workers.

Oregon Bio has tooled up its educational curriculum under the BioPro umbrella as it partners with company members to upskill employees in a broad-based practical curriculum including industry-based education such as data analysis, intensive Six Sigma yellow and green belt programs, failure mode analysis, project management, FDA compliance and regulatory training and 80+-hour certificates in Quality Assurance and Medical Device Foundations. Class participants are employees in the bioscience and advanced manufacturing, as well as participants who are dislocated or looking to grow their expertise for an advanced career.

Company partners Biotronik and Micro Systems Engineering (MSEI) together host a large campus in Lake Oswego with more than 550 employees to innovate and manufacture life-sustaining implants for cardiac, neuro and vascular diseases. The global company implements BioPro training and skills education efforts. Says Juergen Lindner, General Manager of Biotronik/MSEI, “About 80 percent of our talented employees benefit from various levels of STEM education (science, technology, engineering and mathematics). We also continue to invest substantially in employee training initiatives and pro dev programs.”

He adds, “Specifically, for the past 15 years, Biotronik/MSEI has sponsored the highly successful BioPro training programs run by Oregon Bio. These programs alone have provided industry-specific skills to hundreds of our employees. Biotronik is proud to be an early adopter of the full BioPro curriculum.”

While the current curriculum catalogue includes all online learning, key in-person training will also re-launch across the region. Companies can also customize the BioPro class offerings as needed. Class registrants do not need to be a member of Oregon Bio to enroll.

Summer and Fall 2021 classes and technical expertise offered include:

• Quality Assurance Certificate: 80-hour cohort training – online
• Data Presentation Design – Online
• Medical Device Foundations Certificate: 80-hour cohort training – online
• Lean Six Sigma: Yellow Belt Training – Online
• Failure Modes and Effects Analysis, Design and Development – Online
• Practical Data Analysis – Online
• Project Management: Foundations and Best Practices – Online
• LEAN Six Sigma: Green Belt Training – Online
• Root Cause Analysis and Corrective Action – Online
• Statistical Process Control – Online
• Design of Experiments – Online

“Companies that provide resources to educate and train their workers are providing them with new skills so employees can advance in their careers, which helps reduce costly turnover, provides employee satisfaction, and aids in recruitment,” said Julie Black, Oregon Bio’s director of member services and business development. “Companies that win in the long term are the companies that educate and support the talent they already have.”

The bioscience industry provides direct and indirect employment of 47,000 jobs in Oregon, showing substantial growth in the past decade and a 74 percent increase in employment in the past two decades.

With this growth has come more employment opportunities requiring increased demand for upskilling industry teams and training for displaced workers said Liisa Bozinovic, executive director of the Oregon Bioscience Association. She adds that while bioscience, medical devices/technology and digital health firms continue to hire and train, COVID-19 necessitated bringing such training to the online platform.

“We’ve expanded access to these individual classes and intensive training certificates via digital delivery,” said Bozinovic. “The curricula, designed for both incumbent and dislocated workers, equip individuals with in-demand skills for our industry’s well-paying jobs and a better skilled workforce.” All classes are open to the public, both in Oregon and across the U.S., and are relevant to bioscience, medical and health technology, and other advanced manufacturing sectors.

About Oregon Bio (https://oregonbio.org)

The Oregon Bioscience Association seeks to create opportunity through advocacy, cultivation, education and group purchasing discounts for its members and the sector. Oregon Bio promotes the growth and quality of the bioscience industry in the region and continually seeks ways to support sustainability, acceleration and growth in the life science, bioscience, biotechnology and device manufacturing industries. Oregon Bio, a nonprofit membership association, affiliates with the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO), and the Advanced Medical Technology Association. The region’s most current bioscience economic impact study showed in 2017 Oregon’s growing bio footprint reached $10.7 billion. For more information about Oregon Bioscience Association, please visit www.oregonbio.org. Connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter or at (503) 548-4432.

Contacts

Dianne Danowski Smith, 503.201.7019, news@oregonbio.org