Delaware Valley: Philadelphia Biotechnology and Life Sciences Institute

The Philadelphia region has launched the Philadelphia Biotechnology and Life Sciences Institute to expand training in the life sciences. The trianing initiative starts with a summer internship program for high school students. 

[O]ne key goal of the program is to place high-school seniors in paid internships during the summer months at a company and/or laboratory in the Philadelphia area. Over time, he hopes to expand the institute’s programs to every one of the city school district’s high school regions, which would allow for between 200 and 250 students in the institute’s programs. 

One industry executive comments: 

“Starting an advanced training program at the secondary school level is very helpful and much needed to bring in a body of young students who really have a feel for science already and a direction — a pathway toward further training and focused training on special disciplines. That’s very helpful,” he said. “We need that chain to fill the pipeline and make people available for hire.”

Read more.

The article refers to a workforce report conducted by the Delaware Valley Innovation Network. You can download it here. 

You can read more about the WIRED grant activity taking place in the Delaware Valley from this press release.