Ohio Launches New Bioscience Workforce Training Program
10/30/2008
Business leaders from Cleveland to Pittsburgh know the rust belt pain. Now, they want to share technology gain.
Chambers of commerce in Cleveland, Youngstown and Pittsburgh have announced "The Tech Belt Initiative" to draw more federal and private dollars to tech-based development along a 134-mile corridor.
"By Thursday, God willing, we'll know who the next president is," said Ray Leach, chief executive of JumpStart Inc., a Cleveland-based group that supports business startups. "These three [chambers] are going to have a platform of tech-based development ready to take to that president."
Nearly 30 business-development groups, universities and hospital systems from Cleveland, Akron, Youngstown and Pittsburgh have formed a steering committee to pursue the initiative.
They will craft a marketing plan to attract more venture capital and entrepreneurial talent to the mega-region, as well as lobby for more state and federal funds to buttress emerging tech-based development.
Their focus will be business advances in alternative energy, biosciences, information technology, robotics, advanced manufacturing and advanced materials, such as polymers and specialty steels.
The effort springs from ongoing collaboration between BioEnterprise, Northeast Ohio's bioscience-development group, and its counterpart, the Pittsburgh Life Sciences Greenhouse.
The two organizations have exchanged venture capital leads and new business resources for more than a year.
Combined, the two regions drew more than $343 million in venture capital for health care startups in 2007, evidence of rising national interest, said BioEnterprise President Baiju Shah.
"The message has resonated with venture investors," Shah said. "They are surprised about the proximity. They can fly into one city and drive to the other."
The effort spurred U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, a Niles Democrat, and Rep. Jason Altmire, his Democratic colleague from over the Pennsylvania line.
Skilled Northeast Ohio workers who once made cars and other consumer products are being leveraged by Ohio’s growing bioscience industry to make pills, drugs packaging and medical devices. To ensure a strong pipeline of skilled labor to sustain the unprecedented growth of the bioscience industry, the Cleveland Plus region now hosts a brand-new workforce training center to prepare even more Ohio workers for careers in the bioscience industry.
According to the Ohio Business Development Coalition, the nonprofit organization that markets the state for capital investment, the launch of the Bioscience Workforce Training Center at Cuyahoga Community College (Tri-C) demonstrates public-private partnership in action to support and build the future Ohio economy.
"At Tri-C, we saw the opportunity to partner with pharmaceutical drug and medical device manufacturers to help Ohio workers become a part of this growing industry."said John Gajewski, executive director in the Workforce and Economic Development Division at Tri-C’s Corporate College.
Opened Sept. 29, Tri-C’s Bioscience Workforce Training Center is the first of its kind in the nation. The program partners with local Northeastern Ohio companies such as Ben Venue Laboratories in Bedford, that needs new workers to manufacture the sterile drugs it makes for the medical industry.
“At Ben Venue, we have invested more than $375 million on structures and improvements to our pharmaceutical manufacturing facility since 1997,” said President and COO Thomas Murphy. The investment Ben Venue has made in Bedford has allowed the facility to:
• Expand from 220,000 square feet to 920,000 square feet.
• Increase total employees from 450 to nearly 1,200.
• Grow the site from 13 acres to 33 acres.
“In order to ensure that we are able to continue to grow and meet the needs of our customers, we will need to continue to attract top talent to Northeast Ohio,” Murphy said. “Human capital will play the biggest role in our success in the future.”
Ohio ranks best in the Midwest and 4th in the nation for its strengths in the bioscience industry according to Business Facilities Magazine. Cleveland is the hub of Ohio's job growth in bioscience, representing about 20,000 jobs with an average salary of $48,000 a year. Nearly half a million dollars in state funds are paying for the bioscience training program.
“Major bioscience industry employers find Ohio a great fit because of the availability of capital investment, including 58 health care venture funds and investments of over $326 million over the last five years from the Ohio Third Frontier program. That, coupled with both close market access and ease of exporting internationally, as well as sweeping tax reform recently enacted in Ohio, is driving new business opportunities throughout the state”, said Ed Burghard, executive director of the Ohio Business Development Coalition.
“Business leaders are realizing how, in Ohio, they’re able to find a perfect balance between successfully growing a business and pursuing their personal dreams,” said Burghard, “Business owners profit from the bottom-line benefits of better work-life balance for their employees. Ohio offers low-cost, low stress communities in a combination of micropolitan and metropolitan cities. This diversity provides executives and employees the resources and time to make any ambition achievable. Ohio truly is the state of perfect balance.”
About the Ohio Business Development Coalition
The Ohio Business Development Coalition (OBDC) is a nonprofit organization that markets the state for capital investment. The OBDC provides marketing strategy and implementation to support Ohio’s economic development efforts. For more information on business development or business relocation, visit www.ohiomeansbusiness.com.
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