Presented by Dr. Jeanette Mowery, Madison College, WI Project background, what are skills standards and why would we need or want them?

1. Bioscience Laboratory Workforce Skills:
Next Steps
November 18, 2013

2. • Round 2, DOL TAACCCT Award to Forsyth Tech CC
– Community College Consortium for Bioscience Credentials
– 12 colleges, 3 centers
• Grant Strategies to assist TAACCCT workers
–
–
–
–
Improve and expand recruitment
Harmonize a set of bioscience core skills across 3 hubs
Accelerate completion time in credentialing programs
Build capacity for bioscience education

3. • Harmonize a set of Core Competencies across 3
sector hubs
– Biomanufacturing
• NBC2
– Medical Devices (new)
– Bioscience Laboratory
• Bio-Link

4. Bioscience Consortium Grant, pg 16

5. What are skill standards?

6. What are skill standards?
• Skill standards are performance specifications
that identify the knowledge, skills and abilities an
individual needs to succeed in the workplace.…….
• Skill standards provide measurable benchmarks
of skill and performance. They answer two
critical questions:
– What do workers need to know and be able to do to
succeed in the workplace?
– How do we know when students are performing
workplace skills well?’

7. Why skill standards?
• Assist educators in designing curriculum and
assist in partnerships with industry.
• Provide a common basis for granting
credentials, granting portability of skills across
geographic areas, companies and educational
institutions
• Providing a resource for students and entry level
workers to “know what they know”.

8. History of Published Bioscience Skill
Standards
• EDC (1994-1997)
• Agricultural Biotechnology Technician (1994)
• Washington State (2007 updated from 2000)
– R&D, Regulatory Affairs, Manufacturing
• NBC2 (2005 with later updates)
– Biomanufacturing, 10 job titles
• Bioscience Competency Model (Pyramid)
(2007)

9. Skill Standards Resource Page
Bio-Link web site, search: “draft core”

10. • Previous efforts focused on completeness
• Current effort focuses on determining Core

11. Bioscience Consortium Grant, pg 16

12. Laboratory
Skills
Biomanufacturing
?
Biomedical
devices

13. Why this effort to define core?
• Give educators the tools to focus and emphasize the
skills and knowledge needed by every technician
– Develop courses, certificates, modules, etc.
– Avoid programs developed for the wrong reasons that are
not aligned with industry
– Drive authentic assessments
• Define skills and knowledge for entry level positions
– Students know and can articulate what they know
– Industry recognizes what students know
• Possibly develop credential (certificate)

14. Austin Community College Plan

15. Bioscience Consortium Grant, pg 16

16. Three sets of skill standards
• Biomanufacturing Hub
– Sonia Wallman, NBC2
• Medical Devices Hub
– Sengyong Lee
• Lab Skills Hub
– Elaine Johnson, Bio-Link

17. Bioscience Laboratory Core Skills Draft

18. Draft of Common Core based on:
2007 Biotechnology and
Biomedical Skill Standards;
Copyright 2007
http://www.biolink.org/home/shorelinecommunitycollege/biotechnology-skillstandards
Bioscience Competency
Model: U.S. Department of
Laborwww.careeronestop.
org/COMPETENCYMODEL/
pyramid.aspx?BIOSCI=Y

19. DRAFT: Common Core Bioscience Laboratory
Skill Standards

20. NBC2: Northeast Biomanufacturing
Center

21. Skill Standards Resource Page
Bio-Link web site, search: “draft core”

22. Medical Device Hub

23. From “Skill Standards: A Primer”
• Graham Slee, the head of the voluntary National
Training Board (NTB) of Australia,visited the United
States in 1991 and gave several speeches and seminars
on the topic of developing a skills standards system.
Consistently, he said that the single most important
lesson to be learned from that Board’s work is the
importance of developing common language and the
attendant common levels of recognized knowledge and
skills.
• http://wdr.doleta.gov/opr/fulltext/95-voluntary.pdf