Austin Community College Bio-Link Regional Advanced Technological Education Center for Biotechnology and Life Sciences

该生物技术技术人员区域中心的建立是对生物链接下一代国家生物技术和生命科学先进技术教育中心活动的补充。这两个中心的共同使命是“(1)增加训练有素的技术人员的数量和多样性；（二）满足不断发展和多样化的工业对受过适当培训的技术人员日益增长的需求；(3)使社区大学教育实践制度化，使所有学生都能获得生物技术概念、工具、技能过程、监管结构和伦理方面的高质量教育和培训。”该区域中心将扩展Bio-Link的分布式领导网络模型，以建立可复制的状态Bio-Link网络。作为一个区域中心，它的活动将扩大国家中心的影响，同时将重点放在德克萨斯州和肯塔基州的生物技术劳动力需求上，这两个州拥有不断增长的生物技术产业，并将从建立生物链接网络中受益。德克萨斯州和肯塔基州的领导团队位于行业增长最快的地区。该项目的目标包括：1)在每个州建立一个可持续的、可复制的生物技术社区学院分布式领导网络，建立跨教育和产业系统的合作；2)扩大生物技术高中/大学导师网络，支持高中教师实施适合行业的生命科学课程；3)开发新的行业招生渠道，包括利用本科研究作为支线课程和项目的挂钩，以吸引和留住生命科学职业的学生；4)在高中和社区学院实施入门证书，以促进进入工业生物技术工作；5)在社区大学建立合同服务组织（CSO），将行业项目与学生实习和教师实习相结合，使公司、学生和教师受益；6)在教育合作伙伴之间建立全州范围内的衔接和反向衔接协议，以促进学术可转移性和提高学位完成率。通过实现这些目标，将在德克萨斯州和肯塔基州这两个独立的州建立一个多层次的合作网络，以满足一个跨学科的、不断发展的生物技术产业的劳动力需求。生物技术教育合作伙伴将共享课程、设备、最佳教学实践等资源，利用国家和地方资源，继续指导中学和高等教育教师，招募和指导学生，并在两年制和四年制院校之间建立更牢固的关系，以便学生可以在院校之间转学继续学习。教育合作伙伴将以各自项目的优势和地区行业的需求为基础，共同努力，确定监管事务、干细胞维护、与生物技术相关的可再生能源技术和生物伤害等主题的新兴技术趋势。德克萨斯州和肯塔基州的生物技术产业将在全球市场上变得更具竞争力，并且将开发一种可持续的、可复制的模式来建立生物链接州网络。该中心将在德克萨斯州建立一个自给自足的生物技术劳动力教育网络，并在肯塔基州启动一个类似的系统。利用已建立的州、地方和机构基础设施，这些网络将根据生物链接网络开发和实施的最佳做法建立。

The establishment of this Regional Center for biotechnology technicians complements the activities of the Bio-Link Next Generation National Advanced Technological Education Center for Biotechnology and Life Sciences. The common mission of the two centers is to "(1) increase the number and diversity of well-trained technicians in the workforce; (2) meet the ever-growing needs of a continually evolving and diversifying industry for appropriately trained technicians; and (3) institutionalize community college education practices that make high-quality education and training in the concepts, tools, skills processes, regulatory structure, and ethics of biotechnology available to all students." This regional center will expand on Bio-Link's distributed leadership network model to build replicable state Bio-Link networks. As a regional center, its activities will broaden the impact of the national center, while at the same time focus on the biotechnology workforce needs of Texas and Kentucky, two states that host a growing biotechnology industry and would benefit from establishing a Bio-Link network. The Texas and Kentucky leadership teams are located in areas of highest industry growth.The goals of the project include: 1) Establish a sustainable, replicable Biotechnology Community College Distributed Leadership Network in each state to establish collaboration across educational and industry systems; 2) Scale-up the Biotechnology High School/College Mentor Network to support high school teachers to implement industry appropriate life science courses; 3) Develop new student recruitment pipelines into the industry that include using undergraduate research as a hook in feeder courses and programs to attract and retain students in life science careers; 4) Implement an entry-level certificate in high schools and community colleges to facilitate entry into bio-technician jobs in industry; 5) Establish Contract Service Organizations (CSO) in community colleges pairing industry projects with student internships and faculty externships to benefit companies, students, and faculty; and 6) Establish statewide articulation and reversed articulation agreements among educational partners to facilitate academic transferability and increase degree completion. By fulfilling these goals, a collaborative network at several levels and in two separate states, Texas and Kentucky, will be established to meet the workforce needs of an interdisciplinary, evolving biotechnology industry. Biotechnology educational partners will share resources such as curriculum, equipment, best practices in teaching, utilize state and local resources to sustain them in mentoring secondary and postsecondary faculty, recruit and mentor students, and develop stronger relationships between two year and four year institutions so that students can transfer between the institutions to continue their studies. Educational partners will build on the strengths of their individual programs and the needs of area industry, and will work together to identify emerging technician trends on topics such as regulatory affairs, stem cell maintenance, biotechnology-related renewable energy technology, and biopharming. The Texas and Kentucky biotechnology industries will become more competitive in a global market and a sustainable, replicable model for establishing Bio-link state networks will be developed. The Center will establish a self-sustaining biotechnology workforce educational network across Texas, and the start of a similar system in Kentucky. Taking advantage of established state, local, and institutional infrastructures, the networks are to be built based on best practices developed and implemented through the Bio-Link Network.