Ivy Tech gets $1 million grant to expand medical device manufacturing training

Ivy Tech gets $1 million grant to expand medical device manufacturing training

By Mike Leonard331-4368 | mleonard@heraldt.com
September 26, 2012

Ivy Tech Community College-Bloomington has a $1 million dollar grant from the U.S. Department of Labor to help lead national efforts in developing and expanding workforce training in medical device manufacturing over the next four years.

It’s a natural fit for Bloomington, said Sengyong Lee, a co-author of the grant and professor of biotechnology at Ivy Tech. “Bloomington has the most populated medical device industry in the nation and Cook is the world’s largest privately owned medical device company,” he said. “It just makes sense that Ivy Tech should be a part of developing curriculum for this industry.”

Ivy Tech’s Bloomington campus is one of 12 colleges to receive grant funding through its membership in the national Community College Consortium for Biosciences Credentials. The 12 community colleges received a $15 million U.S. Department of Labor grant through the labor department’s Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training initiative.

Forsyth Technical Community College in Winston-Salem, N.C., is the lead member of the consortium. “The funny thing is that Cook is there, too, with Cook Endoscopy, so we’ll be two consortium partners sharing the same company,” Lee said.

Locally, companies that provide jobs in the biomedical manufacturing industry include Cook Medical, Cook Urology and other components of the Cook Medical Group. Boston Scientific is another company with local facilities that will work with Ivy Tech in developing biomedical manufacturing curriculum.

Lee said consortium members will be looking into developing courses in such areas as engineering, regulatory expertise, quality control and other aspects of high-technology, medical device manufacturing. He said Ivy Tech will work in close concert with the consortium partners “so we don’t spend our time reinventing the wheel.”

The consortium members will share information to develop curricula that all members can implement to create national standards in the field.

Lee said he envisions several training certificates being created out of the 12-college effort. He said he hopes that a two-year associate degree will be formed as well.

“This DOL grant award further enables the college to provide vital support for community workforce and economic development needs, and it solidifies Ivy Tech-Bloomington’s national leadership in biotechnology workforce development and skills training,” Ivy Tech-Bloomington Chancellor John Whikehart said in a prepared statement.

Copyright: HeraldTimesOnline.com 2012