(upbeat music) - We are honored to be joined by two leaders in the world of community colleges in the state of New Jersey and the nation.

First, Catherine Starghill is Vice President and Chief Workforce Innovation Officer for the New Jersey Council of County Colleges, and our colleague Mike McDonough, who's president of Raritan Valley Community College.

Catherine and Mike, thank you so much for joining us.

- Pleasure.

- Thank you for having us.

- We have you on because we wanna talk about, first, this initiative called NJBioFutures.

What is NJBioFutures, Mike?

We'll put up a website so people can find out more.

What is it and why is it so important to the pipeline of professionals in this field, particularly as it relates to gene therapy?

- Sure, so it's an innovative effort to do exactly what you said.

There are emerging critical labor market needs in New Jersey.

How do we respond?

How do we train our learners to enter those professions?

So NJBioFutures is a dynamic collaboration between three community colleges, Middlesex, Raritan Valley and Mercer, and leading pharmaceutical industries.

It began with Johnson & Johnson.

And so it is this effort at scale to meet this incredible labor market demand.

- So when you say it began with Johnson & Johnson, Johnson & Johnson's providing the dollars for this initiative.

- They did.

They reached out initially to tell us about this emerging field, their need for highly trained, highly skilled entry level workers, and how might we help?

And so that conversation took place over a number of years and here we are today with a new training center on our campus with Johnson & Johnson providing this collaborative effort and yes, money, expertise, and knowledge.

- And Catherine, before I go to you, let me disclose that Johnson & Johnson, a long-time underwriter of public broadcasting and our production operation.

Catherine, let me ask you, the role of the New Jersey Council of County Colleges in this initiative, A, and we're talking about the industry that Mike talks about or the field is gene therapy.

Explain to folks what that means and why it's so incredibly important for people who depend upon the discoveries connected to gene therapy?

- Sure, so first of all, cell and gene therapy is what's gonna cure us all of many different diseases, like cancer and other diseases.

And so really being able to staff Johnson & Johnson and other pharmaceutical companies with entry level clean room technicians who are trained in the aseptic processing, in clean room behaviors, in good manufacturing practices is very important because it's a very precise technology and therapies that literally cures and saves lives.

- Mike, as I listen to Catherine, to me, I keep thinking about this, is it largely about creating a qualified pipeline of professionals to go into the field, Mike?

- Yes, absolutely.

It is developing a recruiting effort to bring those learners in.

Whether those learners are leaving high school or returning adults who want a different career path, it's providing them with those stackable credentials.

It's providing them with those competencies and those skills that the pharmaceutical companies are looking for and then moving them immediately into those sustainable wage paying jobs.

- Catherine, lemme follow up with you.

Why the community colleges as a platform, as a group of folks who are engaged with students who are a potential pipeline of these professionals going to the field, Catherine?

- Sure.

The New Jersey Community Colleges serve about 250,000 students and adult learners every year as of last year.

And that is because, as the name states, these colleges are in the community.

They make higher education and workforce development training accessible to high school graduates, adult learners who maybe went straight to the workforce and did not pursue higher education, and the colleges have 45 campuses and just like this initiative, NJBioFutures, it was very easy to pull together three community colleges to work as one collective to deliver this curriculum, created really and refined by the industry to be the answer to train, you know, our residents for these very important high paying jobs that are so critical to this technology.

- Mike, let me complicate it for you.

Artificial intelligence and its connection to this effort as it relates to NJBioFutures to expand the pipeline because there is a shortage right now of professionals in the field, what does AI have to do with this, if at all, Mike?

- Probably has a great deal to do with it.

If I were smart enough, I'd be able to map that out for you.

But what I can tell you, and it goes back to your critical question, why community colleges?

Because we are agile, because we are innovative, and because at scale we can adapt to emerging technologies.

Absolutely.

AI will change all entry level work, but you will still need entry level work to then deal with the complications of AI.

That's why you have community colleges.

- You know, Cath, let me ask you something.

My wife went to a community college up in Bergen before she went to a state university, Montclair State University, and I have great respect for your community.

I have great respect for the faculty, the staff and your students.

But let folks understand, not that there's, if someone says, who's your, I never liked that question, who's your typical student?

Because I'm sure it's a very diverse population of students, but why is your sector?

How many students, Catherine, again, are we talking about?

- It's over 200,000.

- 250,000.

- Why are community colleges so incredibly important for so many young people in those two years?

It's a two-year program, right, Catherine?

- Yes.

- Why is it so incredibly important for the future of those young people?

- One, because community colleges are viewed as accessible to them.

It's not as daunting maybe as entering a four-year college or university.

It is in their community.

So maybe individuals, residents have had the opportunity to attend different programs at the community college and they can go, leave, come back.

We make it very easy for individuals to really participate at whatever level, whenever in their life it's convenient to do so.

And we, one really seminal concept of community colleges, as President McDonough said, are stackable pathways.

So you can go to a community college, you can get some workforce development training, obtain credentials that then stack into a credit program leading to an associate's degree, which like your wife, Steve, can then be transferred to a four-year college or university.

So it's just very accessible.

There is no greater staff or faculty than at our 18 community colleges and we make sure that all residents in the state have opportunity.

Mr.

President, last question on your part.

The partnership here between state government, Governor Murphy, outgoing Governor Murphy, and his administration involved in this, Johnson & Johnson you mentioned, and the community colleges, those three, that partnership, is that the kind of potential model we need moving forward?

- It is critical that we understand the changing nature of both work and the changing nature of higher education.

Only that collaborative model is going to, I think, make our institutions sustainable and let us meet those labor market demands that are certainly going to challenge us in the next few years.

- Well said.

To you, Mike, and to you Catherine, cannot thank you enough and especially to the 250 plus thousand students in our community college.

Wish you all the best as you move forward, and thank you for the work you're doing.

We appreciate it.

We'll continue to learn more about NJBioFutures.

We'll follow this story.

Thanks so much.

- You're welcome.

Thank you.

- Thank you.

- You got it.

Stay with us, we'll be right back.

- [Narrator] One-On-One with Steve Adubato is a production of the Caucus Educational Corporation.

Funding has been provided by Delta Dental of New Jersey.

Johnson & Johnson.

EJI, Excellence in Medicine Awards.

A New Jersey health foundation program.

Atlantic Health System.

New Jersey Manufacturing Extension Program.

NJ Best, New Jersey’s five-two-nine college savings plan.

PSE&G.

The Center for Autism And by The Fund for New Jersey.

Promotional support provided by NJBIA.

And by Insider NJ.

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