11-04-2025
OK's first biomanufacturing workforce training center celebrates milestone
OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) — BioTC, Oklahoma's first biomanufacturing workforce training center, celebrated a milestone on Friday.
The program's first cohort, made up of four trainees, received their official certifications.
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'It's just, it's truly exciting,' said Priscilla Aguilar, a graduate. 'This is kind of the future of medicine, if you think about it.'
The program is a part of the OKC Innovation District.
'I think there's a real lack of awareness that there are these types of jobs out there or that people think they have to have an amount of education that may not be feasible for a lot of students to have when they're coming out of high school,' said Kelley Dowd, OKCID's VP of Operations. 'And two, we're providing them with the skills to go be successful in a career trajectory job.'
The program only takes between one and three weeks to complete. By the end, trainees gain skills that typically take around six months to develop.
'Then they can go do things like work in an academic research lab, work at a medical research foundation, in a hospital, any sort of analytical lab as well,' said Dowd.
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Friday's graduates trained specifically for Wheeler Bio in downtown OKC. They'll get to work on Monday.
'It's my first big job, I would say. So that is truly something amazing,' said Aguilar. 'If you're interested in biomanufacturing, go ahead and apply to this program and it will truly change your life.'
BioTC hopes to get 40-50 more trainees through the program by the end of the year. To be considered, you must be at least 18 years old and have a high school diploma or GED.
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