Pivots: Coalition Responsible for Equitable Skills Training

拥有一支训练有素的生物技术人员队伍是生物医学创新生态系统的基础。田纳西州对生命科学公司和生物技术工作有许多社会、文化和宏观经济方面的好处，并且正在积极寻求克服缺乏当地和地区社区可用的、训练有素的生物技术人员的问题。田纳西州中部城市联盟、田纳西州健康科学和生物stem联盟以及田纳西州校务委员会在范德比尔特大学的领导下聚集在一起，试点一种公平劳动力发展的新模式。负责公平技能培训联盟（CREST）项目试点了一个可扩展的劳动力公平发展和共享经济繁荣模式，该模式将在田纳西州、美国中南部地区及其他地区推广。CREST是由这个有组织的、协作的、跨部门的联盟领导的，它代表了三个通常孤立的关键生态系统元素，这些元素需要在任何地区产生强大的劳动力：社区、行业和教育分销商。CREST系统地将这些孤立的生态系统元素组织成一个系统，在这个系统中，这些元素被赋予了内在和协同支持彼此的能力。为公平的劳动力发展部署这种可扩展架构，对于修复和重振美国在全球舞台上的竞争力、确保美国的经济实力和国家安全至关重要。CREST将推动贫困和代表性不足的公民向上的经济流动性，使他们能够为即将到来的创新经济做出切实的贡献，这将使美国在全球范围内恢复竞争力。CREST试点的体验式学习机会将为参与者建立必要的技能和能力，使他们能够进入国家认证的生物技术人员职业，这将支持田纳西州和中南部兴起的新兴生物医学创新生态系统。CREST设备的第一次实施将是为了在田纳西州发展一支强大的生物技术人员队伍。佳洁士将在州和地区范围内试点和推广佳洁士生物技术训练营，在90天内培训、认证并将具有包容性的社区参与者群体转变为国家认证的生物技术人员。CREST生物技术人员训练营不会创建新的生物技术人员培训课程，而是将经过验证的、国家批准的标准、沉浸式实践和三年中等教育的田纳西生物stem项目的积极成果改编为为期90天的训练营。CREST的工业部门对成熟的STEM劳动力有着巨大的需求，因此他们愿意资助奖学金和项目，以提供持续供应的STEM培训人员。CREST将通过提供所需的供应——多样化的、受过stem培训的人员——来利用这种持续的需求来源，从而产生繁荣和富足的积极反馈循环。该项目隶属于NSF卓越计划，由NSF TIP和EDU董事会支持，旨在为来自不同专业和教育背景的个人提供体验式学习机会，以增加他们对新兴技术领域职业道路的兴趣和机会。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Availability of a trained workforce of biotechnicians is the foundational aspect of a biomedical innovation ecosystem. Tennessee has many social, cultural, and macroeconomic benefits for life science firms and biotechnology jobs and is eagerly seeking to overcome the the lack of available, trained biotechnicians sourced from the local and regional community. The Urban League of Middle Tennessee, the Tennessee Coalition for Health Science and BioSTEM, and the Tennessee Board of Regents, have assembled under the leadership of Vanderbilt University to pilot a novel model for equitable workforce development. The Coalition Responsible for Equitable Skills Training (CREST) project pilots a scalable model for equitable workforce development and shared economic prosperity for deployment across the State of Tennessee, the Mid-South region of the US, and beyond. CREST is spearheaded by this organized, collaborative, cross-sector coalition that represents the three, customarily siloed, key ecosystem elements required to generate a robust workforce across any region: the community, the industry, and the education distributors. CREST is systematically designed to organize these siloed ecosystem elements into a system wherein the elements are empowered to intrinsically and synergistically support one another. The deployment of this scalable architecture for equitable workforce development is paramount to repair and resurrect US competitiveness on the global stage and secure America’s economic prowess and national security. CREST will drive the upward economic mobility of impoverished and underrepresented citizens, empowering them to tangibly contribute to the forthcoming innovation economy that is poised to rejuvenate US competitiveness worldwide. The experiential learning opportunity piloted by CREST will build skills and competencies necessary for participants to pivot into nationally certified biotechnician careers that will support the emergent biomedical innovation ecosystem arising across Tennessee and the Mid-South. The first implementation of the CREST apparatus will be towards the development of a robust biotechnician workforce of the future in Tennessee. CREST will pilot and distribute, both state and region-wide, the CREST Biotechnician Bootcamp to train, certify, and transform inclusive cohorts of community participants into a nationally certified biotechnician workforce in 90 days. The CREST Biotechnician Bootcamp will not create a new biotechnology technician training curriculum but adapt proven, state-approved standards, immersive practices, and positive outcomes of the three-year, secondary education, Tennessee BioSTEM program into a 90-day bootcamp. The industrial element of CREST has such a tremendous need for a well-established STEM workforce that they are willing to fund fellowships and programs that provide a sustained supply of STEM-trained personnel. CREST will leverage this consistent source of demand by delivering the required supply – diverse, STEM-trained personnel - thus generating a positive feedback loop of prosperity and abundance. This project aligns within the NSF ExLENT Program, supported by the NSF TIP and EDU Directorates, as it seeks to support experiential learning opportunities for individuals from diverse professional and educational backgrounds to increase their interest in, and their access to, career pathways in emerging technology fields.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.