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Get in on the ground floor of biotechnology

The biotechnology industry is booming in southern Ontario, and the demand for trained tech- nicians continues to grow.

DAVID CHILTON

[ 2006-03-01 ]

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FURZER
Conestoga College

It's this growth that prompted Conestoga College in Kitchener to introduce its biotechnology technician program following 18 months of planning and preparation.

Gordon Furzer, the program's co-ordinator, says the first 35 students will start their classes this September and will study full time for two years. Applications to the program have already started to roll in, says Furzer, who expects most of his students to enter the diploma program straight from high school. They will need high school graduation or its equivalent, with credits in English, math and two sciences.

Other applicants to the new diploma program may be university graduates looking for less theoretical, more hands-on education and career changers looking for a new opportunity, Furzer says.

"This program is seen as a supplement to what universities are doing," Furzer says. "The universities are focussing where they should be: preparing graduates for senior level positions in the industry. The role of the community college is to prepare the technician, and the industry has grown so rapidly that this position has been missed."

The new program offers courses that teach the skills needed across the spectrum of the biotechnology industry, including agriculture, energy and pharmaceuticals. Furzer says to start with students will learn the basics of the sciences, with the emphasis on lab skills in such subjects as microbiology, molecular biology and organic chemistry.

In addition to the technician program, Furzer says Conestoga plans to have an applied degree technologist program in place in three years.

Science is usually considered a male domain, but Furzer says that's not likely to be the case with his technician program because the biological sciences attract more women than men these days.

Tuition for the new program is about $1,800.

BROADER PERSPECTIVE

Gord Surgeoner, who sits on the new program's industrial advisory board, says most of the existing biotechnology courses are oriented towards the medical field, so a broader perspective for the burgeoning field of industrial biotechnology, such as the manufacture of biodiesel fuel, is needed.

Surgeoner, who is the president of Ontario Agri-Food Technologies, says the program will produce technicians who are flexible, possess basic analytical skills, and are mindful of such matters as budgets and record keeping. This last skill is particularly important if there is any potential for a patent application, he says.

KEEN INTEREST

John Kelly, executive director of MaRS Landing, a government-university research and development venture for agriculture, food and life sciences, says the biotech- nology industry is keenly interested in the new program, as is the University of Guelph, especially since there is nothing like it in the region. There are other biotechnology programs in the province, including those at Mohawk College in Hamilton, Seneca College in Toronto and Loyalist College in Belleville.

Although there is considerable demand for biotechnology technicians, Furzer says it's difficult to know how much newly qualified staff might earn. So much depends on geography and the industry the technician is working in. Still, Furzer says the range is from the high $20,000s to the mid $40,000s for entry-level positions, so an average of $36,000 or so isn't bad at all.

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