SAN DIEGO, Feb. 15 /PRNewswire/ -- San Diego State University, BIOCOM, San Diego Workforce Partnership, and the Southern California Biotechnology Center at Miramar College today announced the award of a three-year, $4.95 milliongrant from the U.S. Department of Labor aimed at assisting the economic growth of the San Diego region's life sciences industry. The Biotechnology Readiness, Immersion, Certification and Degrees for Gainful Employment (BRIDGE) project will provide education, training, and placement services to more than 1,000 veterans, incumbent workers and dislocated and unemployed workers within the San Diego region.The BRIDGE project is a partnership linking training and higher education with employment opportunities that address the regional and state-wide workforce needs of the life sciences industry. The project will focus on the critical need for clinical laboratory scientists, medical laboratory technicians, medical physicists, and professional scientists. SDSU and MiramarCollege will provide certificate, degree, and Professional Science Master's (PSM) programs. The BIOCOM Institute's Life Science Immersion Program will provide training needed for successful biotechnology careers, and the BioCollaborative,created in cooperation with the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, will provide an online resource to facilitate seamless transition from higher education to careers in the life sciences industry.
All of these courses are part of a pipeline that can be used to educate, recruit, train and place workers of all levels, from high school students to people with graduate degrees and military