Skyline College Bio-Manufacturing Training Partnership with Genentech & The San Mateo County Workforce Investment Board Receives The California Community College Association of Occupational Education Award For Excellence in Partnership

 

The California Community College Association for Occupational Education (CCCAOE) recognizes the Skyline College Bio-Manufacturing Certificate Partnership with Genentech, Inc. and the San Mateo County Workforce Investment Board with its prestigious Excellence in Partnership Award. The awards ceremony is scheduled for March 2, 2005 at the CCCAOE Spring 2005 Conference in Sacramento. (www.cccaoe.org)

 

Since 2002, the Center for Workforce Development at Skyline College has partnered with the San Mateo County Workforce Investment Board (SMCWIB) and Genentech, Inc. to develop and deliver a customized intensive bio-manufacturing certificate program to retrain dislocated workers from a variety of industries. This program has proved extremely successful with over a 90% training persistence rate and a 70+% placement rate at completion of the program. Program features include:
 

  • Genentech, Inc. identification of target positions in production, documentation, and quality assurance;
  • Targeted recruitment and assessment to Genentech, Inc. standards;
  • Customized pre-employment training of 204 hours (9 units of college credit) developed by Genentech, Inc. and Skyline Community College and delivered by Skyline in an intensive 3 month program;
  • Subsidized 12 week on-the-job paid work experience supported jointly by Genentech, Inc. and the San Mateo WIB.

 

Students consistently rate the training as excellent. In the most recent cohort, 100% of students responding to a program evaluation indicated that their overall experience at Skyline was excellent.

 

The Partnership's innovation and success was recognized as early as 2003 with an award from the South San Francisco Chamber of Commerce for "Outstanding Business Innovation." Local and national media coverage has included CNN, and the Journal of the American Association of Community Colleges.

 

Recognized by the CCC Board of Governor's Career Ladders Project as a best practice, the program has served as a model for other community colleges including Ohlone College, Mira Costa College, and College of the Canyons in California. Partnerships around the nation are implementing the model including cities like St. Louis, Missouri, and Albany, New York.

 

The California Employment Development Department featured the program as a model for WIB and Community College collaboration at the 2004 Annual Conference of the California Workforce Association. In the spring of 2004, the success of the project led to the $2 million U.S. Department of Labor award to Alameda County WIB to expand the program in a partnership with San Mateo County WIB, Skyline College and Ohlone College.

 

Recognizing the success of the Skyline-Genentech-WIB Model, the California Community College Chancellor's Office awarded Skyline College over $700,000 to fund an Industry Driven Regional Collaborative from November 2004 - June 2006 to enhance Bay Area Bio-Manufacturing Education.

 

The Skyline-Genentech-WIB model demonstrates the capacity of the California Community Colleges to deliver highly effective workforce development programs. The model demonstrates commitment to innovative and effective industry-driven education for the diversity of California's evolving workforce. Finally, the model demonstrates the agility of our community colleges to bridge the diverse organizational cultures represented by government, business, and education to insure California's economic vitality.

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