Salem State draws most of its students from the Northeast and Greater Boston regions. BOLD directly addresses two sectors identified as priorities in these regions’ Labor Market Blueprints and subsequent updates: healthcare and social assistance and professional and technical services. The North Shore is also seeing an increase in the workforce needs of the life sciences industry.
While COVID-19 changed the ways of work with remote and hybrid options, work in the healthcare and life science sectors still requires a skilled workforce with practical experience with specialized facilities and equipment. BOLD’s programmatic focus on life and physical sciences aligns with the high-skilled workforce needs of the healthcare and life science sectors, providing the degrees required to support regional workforce demands. The state is already investing significant funds into programs to prepare the workforce of the life sciences industry, most recently with grants for apprenticeships in biomanufacturing, but investment also needs to be made in the infrastructure where this workforce will be educated.
The lab addition and renovated healthcare SIM labs will increase Salem State’s ability to provide students with academic and technical preparation that is directly comparable to the lab environments where they are likely to work, while also permitting the expansion of graduate level offerings in these areas. The new labs enable Salem State to further partner with regional industries to provide employee training, certification programs, industry guest lectures, and university-provided lab services. The SIM labs will increase our ability to offer the hands-on clinical experiences students require on campus, as external clinical placements have been harder to secure in recent years.
The Future of Work Report indicates that healthcare is facing significant workforce development challenges and is anticipated to be the largest source of employment growth in the state with an estimated 210,000 – 230,000 jobs by 2030. It noted this growth will likely be more pronounced in Gateway Cities with a sector growth of 25 to 31% by 2030. With Salem State serving 11 of the 26 Gateway Cities in the Commonwealth and with 20.5% of the 200 largest employers in Essex County in the healthcare and social assistance industry, the need to increase the pipeline of an educated and skilled healthcare workforce is something that BOLD can help address.
MassBioEd notes in its 2021 Employment Outlook that the life science industry’s employment base has grown by 67% over the last decade. They estimate that over the next four years more than 20,000 new jobs will be generated in this industry with a sizable talent supply gap of more than 3,000 research scientists by 2024. The demand for a highly educated workforce in this industry is apparent in the state with MassBioEd noting that 90% of life science firms are looking for candidates with a bachelor’s degree or higher. The Commonwealth Corporation’s STEM Brief 2021 adds that diverse representation in STEM positions continues to be low, and the state is prioritizing workforce diversification to ensure upward mobility for all. Reporting that 59% of STEM jobs require a bachelor’s degree, the new labs in BOLD will help prepare our graduates to compete for these much needed positions.
Salem State is educating a diverse, future STEM workforce as the 3-year average of racially minoritized students in biology is 47%, chemistry is 47%, healthcare studies is 59%, and nursing is 40%. With most of our students staying in the region after graduation, these students will diversify the workforce of the region and the Commonwealth. However, with our limited and outdated labs, our capacity is restricted, and we place our students at a disadvantage because they are not able to work in modern facilities that match those they will find in the workplace. Thus, the quantity and quality of current labs pose challenges for not only our students but also our region’s workforce.