A Collaborative Approach to Work-Based Learning in Biotechnology: Building Inclusive Lab Environments

有一种新的紧迫感，需要在与STEM相关的领域培养一支更加多样化的劳动力队伍。该项目的重点是来自STEM中尚未得到公平代表的群体的社区大学生。这些社区也受到了新冠肺炎大流行的不成比例的影响。大多数为学生准备技术职位的劳动力干预都是基于这样一个前提，即学生只需要有针对性的技能培训和行为规范方面的提示，就能在这些工作场所文化中取得成功。这种“学生赤字”模式让新来者承担起了在工作环境中驾驭的负担，这种工作环境往往天生就对有色人种、女性和来自科学界代表性不足的群体的个人有偏见。然而，随着尖端组织认识到多样性的价值，它们也意识到自己在建立包容性工作场所文化方面可以发挥作用。该项目旨在促进学生、教师、行业经理和学术研究人员在包容性工作场所实践中的专业发展。该项目预计，这些做法可以孕育真正的文化变革，并准备一支更多样化、更具包容性和更有生产力的美国生物技术工作队伍。旧金山城市学院的这个项目是与加州大学旧金山分校职业与专业发展办公室合作完成的。其总体目标是为追求生物技术教育和职业生涯的社区大学生建立更具包容性的工作环境。该项目计划通过以下方式解决科学队伍的多样性问题：1)教授行业经理和学术研究人员以包容和有效的方式监督、指导和培训未来的科学家；2)帮助社区大学生和他们的教师在科学工作场所导航，以确定包容性工作场所并克服包容性障碍。它建立在先前工作的基础上，这些工作导致开发了一个已公布的研究实验室包容性工作场所实践框架，一个全面的包容性学术导师和实习生培训，以及一个包括形成性评估和指导的指导性实习计划。与代表数百家生物技术公司的加州生命科学研究所合作，该项目将投入大量资源，开发适合生物技术行业需求的新框架、工具和课程。此外，该项目还寻求将培训传播到其他社区学院和学术研究机构。该项目由高级技术教育计划资助，该计划专注于为推动国家经济的先进技术领域培养技术人员。 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智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

There is a renewed sense of urgency to develop a more diverse workforce in STEM-related fields. This project focuses on community college students from groups that are not yet equitably represented in STEM. These communities have also been disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Most workforce interventions to prepare students for technical positions have been based on the premise that the students simply need targeted skill training and tips on behavioral norms to be successful in these workplace cultures. This “student deficit” model puts the burden on the newcomer to navigate a work environment that is often inherently biased against people of color, women, and individuals from groups that are underrepresented in the sciences. However, as leading-edge organizations are recognizing the value of diversity, they are also realizing that they have a role to play in establishing an inclusive workplace culture. This project aims to foster the professional development of students, faculty, industry managers, and academic researchers in inclusive workplace practices. The project expects that these practices can seed true cultural change and prepare a more diverse, inclusive, and productive United States biotechnology workforce.This project at City College of San Francisco is a collaboration with the Office of Career and Professional Development at the University of California, San Francisco. Its overall goal is to build more inclusive workplace environments for community college students pursuing biotechnology education and careers. The project plans to address issues of diversity in the scientific workforce by 1) teaching industry managers and academic researchers practical ways to supervise, mentor and train future scientists inclusively and effectively, and 2) helping community college students and their instructors navigate the scientific workplace to identify inclusive workplaces and navigate barriers to inclusivity. It builds on prior work that has led to the development of a published framework for inclusive workplace practices in research laboratories, a comprehensive inclusive academic mentor and intern training, and a guided internship program that includes formative assessments and coaching. In collaboration with the California Life Sciences Institute, an organization representing hundreds of biotechnology companies, the project will invest significant resources in developing new frameworks, tools, and curriculum tailored to the needs of the biotechnology industry. Additionally, the project seeks to disseminate the trainings to other community colleges and academic research institutions. This project is funded by the Advanced Technological Education program that focuses on the education of technicians for the advanced-technology fields that drive the nation's economy. 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.