I WANT YOU FOR BIOTECH

The San Francisco Chronicle, March 14th, 2005
I WANT YOU FOR BIOTECH
Industry is in need of mid-level workers
To help with training, firms shower teachers with funding, supplies
By Bernadette Tansey, Chronicle Staff Writer

Ellyn Daugherty had a plum assignment teaching gifted high school science students. But in 1994 she gave that up to create a pioneering biotechnology program aimed at drawing "the middle 50 percent'' of kids into the high-tech field.

Daugherty belongs to a growing Bay Area network that is trying to lure thousands of ordinary people -- including children -- into a life they might never have dreamed of trying.

She's part of a benign conspiracy of educators, government officials and company executives who are getting the word out: Biotech wants you, whether you knew it or not.

The industry that began as the far-out brainchild of small cliques of brilliant Ph.D.s in the 1970s is now a mainstream business, with plenty of room for people who developed an interest in science late, or even reluctantly.

"Not only does the industry need those middle 50 percent, but those kids need something to get excited about," said Daugherty, now on leave from her job at San Mateo High School to write a textbook.

Biotech companies back her claim -- they're showering teachers at Bay Area schools and community colleges with used equipment, supplies, funding and technical aid to help train the mid-level workforce they need as they grow.

As an increasing number of experimental biotech drugs turn into marketed products, biotech firms must attract trained manufacturing operators, quality control specialists, record keepers, supervisors and other workers.

"As the industry matures, we're seeing more and more opportunities," said Frank Stephenson, who coordinates with school programs for Applied Biosystems of Foster City.

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E-mail Bernadette Tansey at btansey@sfchronicle.com.