BMF meeting explores building trade skills pipeline in North Carolina 

Workforce training, the skilled trades and opportunities for veterans were the focus of the third quarter meeting of the NCLifeSci Biomanufacturers Forum held July 9 at the NC Biotechnology Center.  

As North Carolina's life sciences sector continues its rapid expansion, industry leaders are working collaboratively to build a robust pipeline of skilled trade workers to meet growing demand across the state's biomanufacturing facilities. 

Attendees heard from two maintenance technicians and veterans working at Amgen and CSL Seqirus who talked about their career paths, highlighting service members as a key resource for building North Carolina's biotechnology talent pipeline. 

Angel Frias Chavez, a maintenance technician at Amgen who is transitioning from military service as a “15 tango,” or helicopter mechanic, emphasized how his military troubleshooting and safety experience translated directly to biomanufacturing roles. 

 "Safety will be the number one, like stopping the job when we see an unsafe situation," said Frias Chavez, describing priorities shared between military and pharmaceutical environments. 

Lukas Pokorny, a calibration technician at CSL Seqirus, highlighted the value of apprenticeship programs in developing technical skills. His background included automotive work and previous experience as a technician at Novo Nordisk. 

Both speakers identified key skills gaps in their transition to biotechnology careers. Frias Chavez noted the challenge of learning industry-specific terminology and processes, while Pokorny discussed his need for electrical systems training, particularly automation and programmable logic controllers. 

Frias Chavez and Pokorny recommended expanding internship and apprenticeship programs to attract more candidates to the field.  

"I think there's a lot of talent out there, especially in the military side, that are way, way more qualified than me," Frias Chavez said. 

Industry leaders discuss apprenticeships, military veteran recruitment, and workforce development strategies 

During a panel discussion moderated by Lisa Smelser, strategic initiatives executive director at Central Carolina Community College, representatives from Amgen, CSL Siqirus and NCBiotech shared strategies for recruiting and training maintenance technicians, automation specialists and other skilled trade workers essential to modern biomanufacturing operations. 

The panelists were 

• Deborah Hittel, head of capital projects delivery, CSL Seqirus; 
• Jacob Key, MOVE Boots to Biotech Program director, NC Biotechnology Center; 
• Mark Lockette, metrology/maintenance manager, CSL Seqirus; and 
• Tyler Nelson, senior manager, maintenance, Amgen. 

"Trade worker, to me, can mean anything," Nelson said. "It could be an automation technician, it could be a maintenance technician, it could be an instrumentation technician. Automation is a huge part of our business now." 

The panel highlighted the critical role of military veterans in filling these positions, with several companies reporting strong success rates in transitioning service members into biomanufacturing roles. 

"Veterans have the pedigree to work in this industry," Key said. "I'm hearing teamwork, I'm hearing leadership, I'm hearing standard operating procedures. I'm hearing attention to detail, working in a controlled environment, following standard operating procedures. Those are pedigrees for any standard service member." 

Apprenticeships Drive Success 

CSL Seqirus has emerged as a leader in apprenticeship programs, with the company achieving a 100% conversion rate for apprentices into full-time positions. Hittel explained their rotating apprenticeship model. 

"We had the maintenance technicians go through all four facets of maintenance that we have for our group," Hittel said. "So we've got the facilities group, which they start out with... then we actually migrate them over to the utilities group, so they get to work on some of the larger utility equipment systems." 

Lockette, an Air Force veteran, emphasized the importance of finding candidates with the right mindset over specific educational credentials. 

"I am looking for somebody with basic electronic principles or basic math skills," Lockette said. "Full transparency, I am Lukas (Pokorny)’s boss, so I am the one who brought him on, and the pilot I saw with this young man was we can mold this gentleman into what we need here for our everyday execution of things." 

Addressing Skills Gaps 

The panel identified several critical skills needed for entry-level trade workers, including Good Manufacturing Practices awareness, safety culture understanding and problem-solving abilities. 

"We really look for people that are eager to learn and people that aren't afraid to network," Nelson said. "There's a lot of stakeholders in what we do. We work cross functionally a lot, and we need to be able to collaborate." 

Technical writing and documentation skills prove particularly important, according to Hittel, who noted that maintenance work orders are frequently reviewed during regulatory audits. 

"It's absolutely critical that they know how to write, communicate and then be able to essentially tell a very clear and concise and technical story about what they did when they worked on the equipment," she said. 

Innovative Partnership Models 

The discussion revealed emerging collaborative approaches among competitors. A new biomechatronics program brings together apprentices from multiple pharmaceutical companies for shared classroom instruction while maintaining individual company placements. 

"If we train everybody very, very similarly, then the skill set that you're going to get with somebody who's been through a program like that, you've got that consistency across the industry," Hittel explained. "We're not competing with one another to steal talent, but we're developing talent together." 

Smelser emphasized the flexibility of modern apprenticeship programs. 

"Apprenticeships, while we definitely want to build on the foundation that other companies have laid out, are more flexible than ever," she said. "It really can be tailored to whatever a company needs." 

Looking Ahead 

With companies like Genentech and Johnson & Johnson expanding operations in North Carolina, the competition for skilled workers is intensifying. The panel stressed the importance of continued collaboration between industry, educational institutions and workforce development organizations. 

BMF Business 

Legislative updates from NCLifeSci President Laura Gunther covered ongoing budget negotiations at the state level and federal passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which restored the immediate deduction of R&D expenses and included removed the price-negotiation penalty orphan-disease treatments received for having more than one indication. The meeting also welcomed two new members: Liquidia and A-BIO, expanding the forum's collaborative network. 

Jenae Williams updated the group on NCBioImpact 2.0, highlighting four new project teams: marketing, meetings and events, member asset mapping and metrics, and a steering team. She outlined plans for workforce development, including an upcoming industry resource fair and initiatives to update K-12 curriculum to attract younger talent to biomanufacturing careers. 

The forum will continue exploring workforce development strategies in upcoming meetings, with future sessions focused on career development and safety culture.