ETA News Release: [July 14, 2005]
Contact Name: David James or Mike Volpe
Phone Number: 202-693-4676 or 202-693-3984
Bay Area Biotech Consortium Receives Recognition of Excellence Honors
Second Annual Honors Presented at Workforce Innovations 2005 in Philadelphia
HAYWARD, Calif. - The Bay Area Biotech Consortium received the top Recognition of Excellence (ROE) honor in the "Building an Industry/Business-Driven Workforce Investment System" category at the Workforce Innovations 2005 Conference in Philadelphia. Assistant Secretary of Labor for Employment and Training Emily Stover DeRocco presented the second annual ROE honors, which recognize workforce investment system programs from around the country that have achieved outstanding success. Honorees were selected from more than 100 applicant organizations nationwide.
"This year's Recognition of Excellence honorees exemplify the workforce system's capacity to develop new approaches for equipping workers with the skills necessary to compete in the global economy," said DeRocco. "These projects and the people behind them offer examples of success that colleagues in education and job training can replicate to meet workforce needs throughout the country."
The Employment and Training Administration presents ROE honors in five categories. The "Building an Industry/Business-Driven Workforce Investment System" category responds to the needs of business, while preparing a skilled workforce to further career growth.
In the aftermath of the September 11th terrorist attacks, the Bay Area regional workforce system was faced with assisting thousands of skilled, yet dislocated airline workers. At the same time, the region faced the need to build manufacturing capacity in biotechnology as promising new drugs moved into large scale projects. The Bay Area Biotech Consortium Career Pathway Project was designed to attract and train unemployed airline workers in the new and expanding biotech sector.
The consortium have been successful in training 160 new biotech workers and plans to train 300 more over the next two years. The placement rate has exceeded 75 percent in jobs paying upwards of $35,000. The project has been so successful that the regional partnership concept used in the local biotech industry is being considered for replication to address the needs of biopharmaceutical manufacturing companies in the region.
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