Public Information Office

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

DATE: October 21, 2005
CONTACT: Donna Myers, 206.546.4717

SCC participates on Life Sciences/Bioscience skills panel
for Puget Sound region

Shoreline, WA — Shoreline Community College (Shoreline CC) has partnered with Seattle-King County Workforce Development Council, Bellevue Community College, the Puget Sound Regional Council, Prosperity Partnership and the Seattle-King County AFL-CEO to develop a comprehensive Life Sciences/Bioscience action plan for the Puget Sound region to ensure that Washington state’s workforce remains competitive. This plan brings together existing and new businesses with educational programs at community and technical colleges, the UW and K-12 science programs. The $85,000 grant is a part of a $670,000 grant from the state’s Workforce Training and Education Board to establish skill panels designed to fill workforce needs in specific industry sectors.

Berta Lloyd, instructional dean of professional-technical programs at Shoreline CC, will represent the College on the skill panel in the development of a vision, strategic plan, and outcomes in support of a sciences/biotech strategic plan for the state of Washington.  Lloyd says the panel will explore the possibility of creating a seamless process for students to move from education into industry, identification of current career training gaps, (what does industry need that we are not currently providing), explore biotech centers across the country to investigate their best practices, enhance the existing Northwest Biotechnology website (http://nwbiotech.org), and create a regional Life Sciences Training Center at South Lake Union.

Shoreline CC's program has been named the Northwest Regional Center for Bio-Link—a National Science Foundation initiative.  Its Biotechnology Program, under the direction of biotechnology/biology Professor Guy Hamilton, is currently at capacity with 52 students and has a 100 percent placement rate.  Students learn in a new 3,500 square foot lab.  The program is linked to high schools that offer the Tech Prep Program and articulates to Seattle Pacific University. 

“This opportunity really puts the College’s premier biotechnology program on the life sciences map", says Lloyd, “and our students and the College will definitely benefit. The life sciences skill panel is a great opportunity for our life sciences community to convene and partner.” 

Seattle ranks sixth in the nation in the biotechnology industry with more then 200 biotechnology companies in the state, with 90 percent of them located in Seattle. In addition, the state is considered a premier research hub with the presence of the University of Washington, Fred Hutchinson, Washington State University, and Pacific NW Labs.

For information about the biotechnology program at Shoreline Community College, please visit the web site at http://www.shoreline.edu/biotech/ or call 206.546.4786 or 206.546.4543. The Associate of Applied Science Technology degree is transferable to some four-year institutions.

Shoreline Community College is located at 16101 Greenwood Avenue North, just west of Aurora Avenue and north of Seattle city limits.

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