Bio-Link SFF2012 Certif

1. Bio-Link Summer Fellows 2012
Certification: A Wave or a Ripple?
Jeanette Mowery

2. Certification Update
• Define Terms
• What does the Bio-Link community think?
• History
• Why the push?
• What now?

3. Some Terms
• Certificate
• Certification
• Accreditation
• Credential
• Stackable, latticed credentials
• Common Core
• Technical Skills Assessment

4. Certification
• Formal procedure by which an accredited or
authorized person or agency assesses and
verifies (and attests in writing by issuing a
certificate) the attributes, characteristics,
quality, qualification or status of individuals or
organizations, goods or services, procedures
or processes or events or situations, in
accordance with established requirements or
standards.

5. Accreditation
• A process whereby a professional association
or nongovernmental agency grants
recognition to a school or health care
institution for demonstrated ability to meet
predetermined criteria for established
standards, such as the accreditation of
hospitals by the Joint Commission on
Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations or
of schools of nursing by the NLNAC.

6. Credential
• A qualification, achievement, personal quality,
etc., used to indicate suitability for something:
"academic credentials".
• A document or certificate proving a person's
identity or qualifications.

7. Credentials include:
• Degrees
• Diplomas
• Certificates
• Registered apprenticeship certificates
• Occupational licenses (typically government
agencies award these)

8. Stackable Credential
• Part of a sequence of credentials that can be
accumulated over time to build up an
individual’s qualifications and help them to
move along a career pathway or up a career
ladder to different and potentially higher-
paying jobs.
Source: TEGL 15-10, www.doleta.gov

9. Stackable Credential
Ph.D
Associate of Science
61 units
M.A. or M.S.
Certificate of
Achievement
B.A. or B.S.
17 units
High School Diploma
Certificate of
Proficiency
9 units

10. Manufacturing Skills Certification System

11. Certification Models
• Advanced Manufacturing
– Beginning at entry level work, employability skills,
then moving into specific technical competencies
• Center for Energy Workforce Development
• Information Technology
– CompTIA

13. What does the Bio-Link Community
think about certification?
• From the 2011-2012 Bio-Link Survey
• In your opinion, would it benefit the students
in your program if they could obtain an
industry recognized certification
– 82% Yes
– 10% Not sure
– 8% No
• BUT …

14. Bio-Link Poll

15. Poll Results

16. ✔Helpful
• Employers need to know what our graduates know how to
do. Certification is an important step in this direction.

17. ✔Helpful
• Having now worked as a biotech educator in three different parts of the
country, I have come to realize that there is a common basic skills set,
required for virtually anyone working in a bioscience-based research or
testing laboratory. I used to be very skeptical of the idea of a general
certificate, but lately I’ve changed my mind, placing more hope in the idea
that educators and industry representatives can work together to identify
and create assessments for these basic skills. It wouldn’t be possible in
my opinion, to capture more specialized skills, but the basic skills are
critical. I am often frustrated by the lack of understanding among
employers of the possibilities within our facilities. Many employers retain
misconceptions about what our graduates can actually do. A certification
would go a long way toward clearing up some of those misconceptions so
that our skilled graduates will not be overlooked for jobs for which they
are well-qualified.

18. ✔Helpful…..(but)
• “Helpful because it would draw industry into the
conversation. Whether a person as an AB/BS/MS
or AS/AAS wouldn’t matter. What would matter
is showing the practical
knowledge/competencies that would help
employers and applicants.”
• “Given that a bioscience technician’s work is not
as defined nationally as for clinical chemistry or
medical technology, it would take a while to
come to agreement on the basic skills needed:
documentations, calculations, basics of
instrumentations, biosafety, lab etiquette… etc.

19. ✔Helpful.. but
• “I think certification can be helpful – but to do it right, which
includes a certification process that is continually reviewed and
updated is NOT going to be easy, especially on a national level. IF
we can do it right – then industry across the country would know
what the student knows and can do– and the graduating student
would also know this- which is not easily achievable but very
important in interviews and also on the job. That to me is the value
of certification.”

20. ✔Helpful
• Certifying bodies can stimulate member
supporting organization
– Pharmacy technician example
– Continuing education

21. ✔Possible Harm
• “Interesting thought, but the technology is so
varied that I don’t think it would be really useful.
It could, in fact, be harmful, because of
computerized matching that is now used to reject
applicants. For example, a company needs
someone to run a particular assay. They post a
job for a certified technician. An applicant comes
along who is an expert at running that assay but
has not been certified. His resume will never
reach the desk of the hiring manager, and he will
not get the job.”

22. Summary of Helpful Responses
• Industry will know what students know
• Student will know what they know
• Certification Infrastructure could facilitate
further education
• Issues to address:
– Diversity of skills needed for technician jobs
– Developing consensus about core, entry level
– Third party certification? By what organization?

23. Summary of Harmful Responses
• Disconnect between student job performance
and test results
– Students who don’t test well
– Students with disabilities
• Potential to limit technician job opportunities
to what they are “certified” for
• Reduce Hands-On programs to a test
• Bureaucracy, process, red tape

24. Some History
• Discussed at conferences/meetings for many years
– Other occupational areas
• Poll at BIO CCP 2010
• Addressed again at BIO CCP 2011
– NCBio – Path toward NAM supported credentials
• NBC2 Biomanufacturing community efforts
• 2012 Forum, Certification Pathways for Biosciences
– Washington D.C.
– Winston Salem, N.C.
• DOL TAA Grant proposal submitted last month
– Community College Consortium for Bioscience Credentials

25. Why the push?

26. Why the push?
• Manufacturing Industry is stressed about lack
of skilled workforce
• Feds are stressed about dislocated and
unemployed workforce
• Where do we fit in?
– Biomanufacturing is manufacturing
– Perception that Bioscience industry jobs can
compensate for decline in other industries and
offshoring

27. According to
NAM
• Challenge: Not enough skilled workers
– Demographics
– Technological advances require more advanced skill sets
– “Major deficits in our education system”
• Too few high school graduates are ready for college or ready for work, even fewer
versed in STEM
• Solution
– Renaissance in manufacturing education
– Competency based, customized education for the manufacturing workforce
– Increased access to post-secondary degrees and industry recognized
credentials
– Career pathways aligned to competency based education and certification
programs

28. President Obama Endorses
Manufacturing Skills Certification System
• From Skills for America’s Future Press Release
One of the challenges in today’s manufacturing sector is the lack of a standardized
credentialing system that manufacturing firms recognize as useful preparation
for their unfilled jobs. As a result, students often spend time and money on
training that can have little value to potential employers while employers have
difficulty identifying which credentials are of value and should influence hiring and
promotions.
The Manufacturing Skills Certification System, developed with manufacturing
firms at the table, will give students the opportunity to earn manufacturing
credentials that will travel across state lines, be valued by a range of employers
and improve earning power. In designing this program, the Manufacturing
Institute has partnered with leading manufacturing firms, the Gates Foundation,
and the Lumina Foundation, and key players in education and training including
ACT, the Society of Manufacturing Engineers, the American Welding Society, the
National Institute of Metalworking Skills, and the Manufacturing Skills Standards
Council. This will allow students and workers to access this manufacturing
credentials and pathways in community colleges in 30 states as a for-credit
program of study.

29. Manufacturing Skills Certification System

31. Role of the Feds
• DOL Grants
– TAACCT
• Perkins $
– Emphasizes a “Technical
Skills Attainment” (TSA)
– Third Party
– Aligned with Industry
Recognized Standards
– No standardized
assessment for biotech

32. Hmmm.. What now?
• Is there a way to ride this wave for the benefit
of our students?

34. What now?
• Identify Common Core Competencies
– Draft is on the Bio-Link web site, Lisa Seidman’s
blog
• Identify, develop assessments for core competencies
• Document and disseminate through Bio-Link website
• Curriculum can be “chunked” or “modularized” or
“intensified”
• Possible Common Core Skills Credential?

35. Core Competencies

36. Bio-Link Common Core
• References:
– 1) 2007 Biotechnology and Biomedical Skill
Standards; Copyright 2007, State of Washington
through the State Board for Community and
Technical Colleges
– 2) Bioscience Competency Model: U.S.
Department of Labor
• http://www.careeronestop.org/COMPETENCYMODEL/pyram

38. Issues
• If third part certification, who will be the
certifying body?
– NAM?
• Will the test be performance based?
– If so, how will that work?
• If test on concept knowledge..
– Can anyone take it?
• Accreditation of programs?

39. • Comments, questions?