Orlando Yarbourough III, the program’s director at ConnCAT, said the founding of the program was an intentional effort from the industry side “to be more inclusive and to also create a pathway where there hasn’t been a pathway for non-college degree, historically underrepresented residents.”
Yarborough said the current system of employment usually requires a minimum of bachelor’s degree, a master’s degree or more advanced education, but those are getting “increasingly more expensive and more prohibitive for people” to pursue.
“There are functions within a biotech company at the entry-level that don’t require the education that comes from a four-year degree,” he said. “This is the industry’s intentional effort to kind of uncover what those opportunities are and to make them available to New Haven residents.”
Residents in the underserved communities, as Yarborough said, can be discouraged when looking at their future with college tuition being on the rise and there’s no guarantee they’ll be able to complete their studies.
Participants, aged 18-26, will go through four months of classes and labs and end with two months of paid internships with a biotech company in New Haven. Thanks to $2.5 million in state funding, they will receive a monthly stipend and other support services.
Throughout the program, participants will become familiar with biotech equipment through hands-on instruction. They also will take classes on environmental health and safety, animal husbandry, tissue culture, microscopy and spectrophotometry, among other topics.
At the end of the program, Yarbourough said, even though a job placement isn’t guaranteed, the program’s career pathway manager would help with the job hunting process including resume building, identifying goals and finding matches.
“The intention of the industry side is that they will be able to make full-time offers, to hire our graduates after their internships,” Yarbourough said. BioLaunch is “an industry-initiated, certified training program that allows a close link between the specific skill sets being developed in our participants and the specific needs of individual companies.”
Craig Crews, a Yale professor who founded the program, said when the program was announced that while the biotech industry is “rapidly growing” in the region, “not all of our communities are benefiting equally in these successes.” Crews was not available for comment Wednesday.
New Haven has at least 20 biotech-related employers, according to Biotech-Careers.org. The completion of a 500,000-square-foot bioscience project at 101 College St. also will directly translate to 700-1,000 new jobs, according to city officials.
What’s encouraging about BioLaunch, Yarborough said, is that it’s an opportunity for New Haven residents to “contribute their talent and skills to a growing biotech field without the barriers of costly higher education.”
The classes take place Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. There are two cohorts per year, one in spring and another in fall. Residents who are interested can apply at conncat.org/adult-programs.
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