San Diego State University and a handful of local partners are creating an education program for people going into biotechnology. They're getting started, thanks to a $4.95 million grant from the department of labor.
San Diego's life science industry provides many good jobs. But local companies say it's very hard to hire qualified people in San Diego. That's why SDSU is working with Miramar College, BioCom and the San Diego Workforce Partnership to train people for the industry.
Stanley Maloy is dean of the College of Sciences at SDSU. He said the partnership is creating programs to teach people to be anything from laboratory technicians to quality assurance specialists.
"To everything in between," Maloy adds. "Dealing with finances and regulatory affairs and so on. All the way up to the people who are actually thinking about what kinds of things need to be done to develop the next new product."
He said the labor department grant will get the program running, but tuition and fees will keep it sustainable.
