MassBioEd partners with developers in Boston to train and employ more workers in a burgeoning Genetown life sciences industry desperate for skilled labor. Meanwhile, Biogen clears real-estate space.
MassBioEd is partnering with developers in Boston to train and employ more workers in a burgeoning Genetown life sciences industry desperate for skilled labor.
The number of companies has doubled in the last seven years, officials say, but they are having difficulty finding workers with the right training.
MassBioEd is launching a Life Sciences Career Hub to bring job forums, networking events and career counseling to the region, the Boston Business Journal reported Friday. The program will focus on helping workers without college degrees find jobs in the region’s life-sciences industry.
The organization is partnering with global real estate developers Lendlease and Ivanhoe Cambridge to build FORUM, the first purpose-built life sciences development in Boston Landing. It will run along the Massachusetts Pike in Boston’s Allston-Brighton neighborhood.
The companies formally began construction last week on the $500 million, 350,000-square-foot life sciences project. The nine-story building of labs and office space is expected to be completed in 2024.
The Business Journal reported that the non-profit’s goal is to partner with developers throughout the area to set up the new program in labs across the state.
“The model is that we might be in Allston on Tuesdays, in the Seaport on Wednesdays and in Roxbury on Thursdays. We want to be present in the neighborhoods, and we want to offer information to people who need it,” Sunny Schwartz, chief executive at MassBioEd, told the Business Journal.
Schwartz said the first graduating class - of which most participants are people of color - will serve apprenticeships at local companies where they will get three months of on-the-job training. Most are expected to get full-time job offers in biomanufacturing, clinical trial work and other positions.
Life sciences companies in the region recently reported they are having difficulty finding skilled workers. The Massachusetts Biotechnology Council report, based on a survey of 129 companies, found an overwhelming number of respondents - some 94 percent - having difficulty hiring experienced workers.
For 73.5 percent, these struggles extended to finding even qualified entry-level candidates. A small applicant pool, lack of experience and lack of industry knowledge were among the challenges listed by companies. Notably, the most difficult entry-level position for the respondents to fill was that of research associate.
“One project is not going to do it. We’re going to develop a consortium, with two, three, four to start. It will be 10,” Nick Iselin, Lendlease’s executive general manager of development in Boston, told The Business Journal. “It takes a commitment to get it going. We’re that commitment.”
In other real estate news, Biogen might be helping out with a different regional problem – lack of space.
The company is shedding its real estate holdings, selling one building and ending its lease on another, it announced last week. Biogen sold its six-floor Kendall Square building to Boston Properties for $603 million.
Biogen said it was part of its “Future of Work” endeavor to reduce the number of office hours employees work in a post-pandemic, “hybrid work model.”
