Open Source: For certain careers, NC’s best graduate schools are its community colleges

I’m Brian Gordon, tech reporter for The News & Observer, and this is Open Source, a weekly newsletter on business, labor and technology in North Carolina.

Say a student graduates from a four-year university with a degree in biology. Chances are they’ll leave with a wealth of theoretical knowledge, which in the long run can inform and advance their careers. But to be ready Day 1 for many entry-level biotech jobs — particularly in manufacturing — theory alone falls short.

“In that way, we kind of operate almost like a graduate school,” said Scott Ralls, president of Wake Technical Community College. “Like a skill-based finishing school.”

Wake Tech is one of 13 North Carolina community colleges to offer BioWork, a 136-hour course that readies students for technician positions in life science, pharmaceutical or chemical manufacturing. Most of the participating colleges are clustered around the greater Triangle region where biotech manufacturing is big and getting bigger.

Novo Nordisk, Novonesis, Amgen, Biogen, Eli Lilly, Pfizer, CSL Seqirus, FujiFilm Diosynth and Grifols all have plants in the area. And starting salaries at these life science sites are often high enough to draw applicants with bachelor’s degrees, a departure from many factory jobs of past generations. Take Fujifilm Diosynth, which in April announced 680 new jobs at its incoming Wake County plant at an average wage of $109,000.

BioWork isn’t exclusive to college graduates or just students. The program recently opened up to high schools and current workers also complete courses to prepare for new positions. Part of the lessons focus on basic scientific principles — which college grads may have already mastered — but then the lessons get into “good manufacturing processes,” Ralls said, like maintaining sterility, cleanliness and other regulations inside facilities.

“Students will be given a new vocabulary to use with all the jargon that would make them competitive, and definitely not quite so naive to what industry work looks like,” said Stewart Lyon, head of the biotechnology program at Vance-Granville Community College.

Lyon anticipates universities, including his alma mater N.C. State, will begin offering more entry-level instruction to meet the region’s rising demand for life science manufacturing talent.

He explained the traditional four-year academic track doesn’t always expose students to the high-end technical biotech equipment they’d encounter during shifts. And he says he’s seen some students with master’s and even doctoral degrees pay the $180 BioWork course fee to get a leg up in their careers.

MrBeast under the microscope

YouTube sensation and Greenville resident Jimmy Donaldson, best known as MrBeast, admitted this week he used “inappropriate language” early in his online career. In a 2017 slip circulating online, the then-teenage Donaldson makes a racial “joke” about Black people and uses a homophobic slur multiple times. Donaldson’s past comments came under heightened scrutiny after posts surfaced showing former MrBeast collaborator Ava Kris Tyson acting inappropriately with minors online, including discussing nude photos.

“When Jimmy was a teenager he acted like many kids and used inappropriate language while trying to be funny,” a spokesperson for Donaldson said in a statement to The Associated Press. “Over the years he has repeatedly apologized and has learned that increasing influence comes with increased responsibility to be more aware and more sensitive to the power of language.”

Donaldson first went viral in 2017 making zany YouTube videos from his North Carolina bedroom. Today, his channel has 307 million subscribers, more than any other account on the platform.

Donaldson, 26, grew up in the Eastern North Carolina city of Greenville, where he’s filmed many of his videos and is expanding his studio. His videos include massive cash giveaways and inventive challenges. In addition to YouTube, he’s currently creating a reality competition with Amazon.

Clearing my cache

• Raleigh software provider Pendo acquired the New York City startup Zelta AI, which aims to help clients by analyzing the feedback customers provide. “Users share feedback wherever it’s convenient for them, scattering insights that companies need to grow their businesses or retain customers,” Pendo CEO and co-founder Todd Olson said in a statement.

National Tech Happenings

• Intel laid off 15,000 employees, about 15% of its workforce, as the chip maker cuts costs to compete with rivals Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices. Speaking of Nvidia, the U.S. Department of Justice reportedly has begun two probes into the red-hot chip company for potentially violating antitrust law.
• The CEO of Delta Air Lines says last month’s CrowdStrike outage cost his company $500 million. “They haven’t offered us anything,” he told CNBC. “Free consulting advice to help us.”
• Former President Donald Trump positioned himself as the pro-cryptocurrency candidate at the Bitcoin 2024 conference last weekend. It’s a turnabout for Trump, who in 2021 called bitcoin “a scam against the dollar.”

Thanks for reading!

This story was originally published August 2, 2024 at 9:09 AM.