Oregon Bio has been awarded a $2.1M Future Ready Oregon Workforce Ready Grant from the Higher Education Coordinating Commission (HECC). These funds, part of the Workforce Ready Innovation in Workforce Programs Grant, will propel the Access Bio Apprenticeship Program into its final stages of development and implementation.
This program is being developed in collaboration with industry employers, community-based organizations, and education providers and is focused on creating opportunities for Oregon’s historically underserved and underrepresented communities to enter the bioscience field as well as provide our industry partners access to a pool of talented workers.
With this substantial financial backing, we are poised to make significant strides in realizing our objectives.
We extend our heartfelt thanks to the state agency, the Higher Education Coordinating Commission, for recognizing the importance of our work and supporting us in this endeavor. We also express our gratitude for the overwhelming support received from the companies, community organizations, educational institutions, other partners, and community leaders who provided letters of support and/or contributed their guidance and expertise to the development of this program, including:
Acumed, Actylis, Building Inclusive Labs, Cinder, Collina Beard, Connected Lane County, Genentech, Lane Workforce Partnership, Latino Community Association, Latino Network, Lonza, MESA, MSEI, NE STEAM, Oregon Bio’s DEI Committee members, Oregon TRIO, Partners in Diversity, Portland Community College, Portland Workforce Alliance, Serán Bioscience, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Twist Bioscience, Virginia Manufacturers Association, Warm Springs Community Action Team (WSCAT), Worksystems.