The following are excerpts from a story in the Boston Business Journal on June 5, 2023.
Mayor Michelle Wu joined MassBio CEO Kendalle Burlin O’Connell and Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. (Nasdaq: VRTX) CEO Reshma Kewalramany, among other public and private partners, to announce a new workforce training initiative on Monday morning.
Funded by $4 million from the city’s Neighborhood Jobs Trust and the federal American Rescue Plan ACT, or ARPA, the program aims to get 1,000 Bostonians into life sciences jobs by 2025, with a focus on nontraditional career pathways.
“In today’s labor market and the changing nature of the workplace, the future of work has and is evolving,” state Labor Secretary Lauren Jones said. “That is why the commonwealth is dedicated to reimagining how we invest in and how we develop our workforce.”
The state is likewise using BIO as a platform. MassBio, the state’s biopharma trade organization and local partner of the national BIO group, is behind the Massachusetts pavilion in the main exhibition hall, where Wu, Burlin O’Connell and Massachusetts Life Sciences Center (MLSC) CEO Kenn Turner celebrated a ribbon-cutting on Monday.
Gov. Maura Healey will be among BIO’s attendees on Tuesday, with remarks planned in the morning. On Wednesday, her lieutenant governor, Kim Driscoll, is scheduled to take part in a fireside chat.