As more laboratories are expected to come to the Temple Health and Bioscience District, it is hoped that students will stay in Temple or return here after finishing college.
This year, 235 students are enrolled in the Temple College-affiliated institute, up from its first class of 54 in 2006-07.
The institute offers laboratory experience and intensive training in math and science to high school upperclassmen and college students, director Dan Spencer said. Students can work on an associate’s degree, advanced technical certificate or apprenticeship. High-school students working on dual credit classes can graduate from high school and simultaneously complete an associate’s degree from Temple College, he said.
High pay is one factor that seems to draw students. Salaries in bioscience careers pay about 68 percent more than typical private-sector jobs, said Lee Peterson, president of the Temple Economic Development Corp.
Citing a jobs report from Texas Workforce Solutions for the Temple-Killeen area, Peterson said bioscience jobs here typically pay between $60,000 and $70,000 a year. For comparison, teachers earn an average annual salary of $44,000; truck diesel mechanics, $35,000; data entry clerks, $25,000; and computer programmers, $61,000.
“But you’ve got to have the right education and experience to get there,” Peterson said. “We’re going to take somebody who has the right education whatever that might be - a bachelor’s degree, master’s or doctorate - and with some time and experience in that industry, they will get to that level of employment.”
Wendell Williams, bioscience board president, said graduates with an associate’s degree can earn $40,000.
Located in the Bioscience Research Center, the TBI is near the Cancer Research Institute and the Institute for Regenerative Medicine, which adds to a prestigious learning environment, said Dr. Walter Dyck, former chief academic officer at Scott & White Memorial Hospital and executive associate dean of the Temple campus of Texas A&M University Health Science Center.
The researchers’ presence also indicates a growing need for new workers in the community, a concern that caused Dyck and others to look to Temple College a few years ago.
“People began to ask, ‘With all this research springing up over here, where’s our workforce going to come from?” said Dyck, now special adviser to the bioscience district. “And particularly when we move to the next stage to talk about commercialization.”
The college responded by securing a $920,000 U.S. Department of Labor grant in June 2005 to help train students for future laboratory careers.
Spencer said preparing students for those jobs has been a goal from the start. Temple College staff developed curriculum after asking researchers what skills were needed to work in their labs, and what equipment is used.
“We started with the jobs in mind and worked backwards to develop the educational programs that would support the employee training for that bioscience industry,” he said, noting that a primary focus with dual-credit students is making sure they finish high school.
Peterson said it is hoped that TBI students going to a four-year university will return here after finishing college.
“It’s going to be important for those kids to take a look at us and see if coming back home will make some sense,” he said.
