Bio-Link Summer Fellows 2012Certification: A Wave or a Ripple?

Jeanette Mowery

Certification Update

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

Some Terms

• Certificate• Certification• Accreditation• Credential• Stackable, latticed credentials• Common Core• Technical Skills Assessment

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.

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.

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.

Credentials include:

• Degrees• Diplomas• Certificates• Registered apprenticeship certificates• Occupational licenses (typically government

agencies award these)

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

Stackable Credential

Ph.D

M.A. or M.S.

B.A. or B.S.

High School DiplomaCertificate of Proficiency

9 units

Certificate of Proficiency

9 units

Certificate of Achievement

17 units

Certificate of Achievement

17 units

Associate of Science61 units

Associate of Science61 units

Manufacturing Skills Certification System

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

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 …

Bio-Link Poll

Poll Results

✔Helpful

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

✔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.

✔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.

✔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.”

✔Helpful

• Certifying bodies can stimulate member supporting organization– Pharmacy technician example– Continuing education

✔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.”

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?

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

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

Why the push?

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

According toNAM• 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

President Obama Endorses Manufacturing Skills Certification System• From Skills for America’s Future Press ReleaseOne 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.

Manufacturing Skills Certification System

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

Hmmm.. What now?

• Is there a way to ride this wave for the benefit of our students?

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?

Core Competencies

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/pyramid.aspx?BIOSCI=Y

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?

• Comments, questions?