Biotech's Line of Defence

When people think of a career in British Columbia’s burgeoning biotech industry, the prospect of spending a good chunk of your life getting a doctorate degree can seem a little daunting. But that doesn’t have to be the case, as a provincial program geared for lab technicians and researchers attests.

“We train [students] to go out and work right away and our students are getting snapped up,” Carly Handel, the program and marketing assistant for B.C. Institute of Technology’s biotechnology department, said. “Some go on to be M.D.s or work in other fields, but for the most part they take entry-level jobs as research associates or lab technicians.” Others start their own companies in the field, she added.

BCIT offers two avenues of study: An associate certificate in biotechnology — an intense 13-week program that focuses on laboratory work and is geared to those who already have a university degree; and an honours degree of Bachelor of Science in Biotechnology, a joint initiative between BCIT’s biotechnology program and the University of British Columbia’s department of microbiology and immunology.

The degree program also includes co-op work terms, and covers business principles, regulations, and research. It emphasizes cross-discipline training and is intended to produce students with strong scientific and technical backgrounds. The co-op work ensures a direct interaction with industry and introduces students to different fields.

British Columbia is home to more than 90 private-sector biotechnology firms, as well as many research centres, and has one of the fastest-growing biotech sectors in Canada. Training in biotech can lead to careers in health research, pharmaceuticals, genetics, agriculture, forensics, business and other related fields.

The degree program was first offered five years ago, so graduates are just now getting out into the workforce. It essentially means five years of education, because students must complete their first year at a university’s faculty of science before moving on to two more years at BCIT and an additional two years at UBC, Ms. Handel said.

The 13-week certificate program is a “condensed form of our full-time program,” she added.

Each program accepts 22 students a year and one interesting aspect is that they have four different co-op terms, meaning they can work with up to four biotech companies before graduating, she said.

The 13-week program costs $6,750 and full-time students pay about $5,400 a year. Starting salaries are in the $30,000 to $40,000 a year range, moving up to $45,000 to $55,000 in about three years, Ms. Handel said. The pay can be quite lucrative if students sign up with the right company at the right time.

Siaw Wong, who graduated from the degree program in 2006, is working for a year as an assistant instructor of biotechnology at BCIT. Ms. Wong, 25, said she was particularly impressed with how the program was set up. “I really liked the way they organized the courses,” she said. “They gave us a really good foundation in all the sciences, so you get a broad view of how the different sciences interrelate. It was hard and long, but I have no regrets.”

When she finishes her contract work with BCIT, Ms. Wong hopes to work either in an academic setting or with a biotech company. “I’m interested in cancer research, so I’m looking around in that area.”

Ms. Wong recalls that as a high school student, she was always interested in science but wasn’t particularly good at it initially. “Science is one of those things you have to be passionate about. If you don’t have [passion], you don’t get better.”

Jackie Chan, a 20-year-old Vancouver resident, is in his second year of the degree program. “It [the program] is really intensive,” Mr. Chan said. “A lot of the time we have to skip lunch to finish our laboratory. I really like the hands-on practice.”

Mr. Chan, who writes a blog of his experiences in the program, isn’t sure what field he will enter after graduating. “I’m thinking of scientific research, possibly pharmaceutical development. But if I have a chance, I may go to medical school.”

Mr. Chan points to a class, where he is taking genes from a mouse and inserting it into bacteria. One possibly application of the work, he said, is the ability to make insulin at a greater rate.

BCIT hosts several week-long career awareness workshops in biotechnology for high school students, giving them some hands-on biotech experience. As part of the workshops, groups of more than 20 students from around the Lower Mainland attend classes and labs and visit a local biotech firm.