First, more bad news. On Thursday, the U.S. Department of Labor reported jobless claims increased last week to 516,000, nearly matching the number of claims filed just after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Thousands locally are among those out of work.
Now some good news. Rowan-Cabarrus Community College announced Thursday it has been approved for two new programs that could produce workers to fill thousands of jobs being created at the N.C. Research Campus in Kannapolis.
The college, with campuses in Salisbury and Kannapolis, will offer associate degree programs in biotechnology and agricultural biotechnology.
Students who earn the biotech degree could work as lab technicians, research assistants and quality control associates at small testing labs, large manufacturers, government laboratories and research universities. Agricultural biotech graduates might find jobs as research assistants to biologists and chemists, lab and instrumentation technicians and quality control technicians.
And Rowan-Cabarrus also is working with Gaston College to develop a certificate program to quickly train people who already have a science or laboratory background for work as clinical research technicians or assistants.
A study commissioned by the city of Kannapolis projects the Research Campus will create more than 5,500 biotech jobs by 2013 and approximately 14,000 by 2032. While that may seem a long time to wait for employment, skills earned in these programs could translate to good jobs in growing fields well before those dates.
And that’s good news.