Dearborn Stem School in Boston. According to the author, Nubian Square Athens and the new Benjamin Franklin Cummings Institute of Technology campus under construction adjacent to it will collaborate to create the Nubian Athens Life Sciences Job Training Center. It is said that they are doing so. This vocational training hub will also anchor the advanced manufacturing ecosystem that feeds the joint hub facilities of BFIT and Dearborn STEM High School. (Staff photo by Patrick Whittemore/Boston Herald
I am proud of Mayor Michelle Wu’s $4.7 million in funding to support Boston’s life sciences workforce and Governor Maura Healey’s $1 billion in funding to support the life sciences and climate technology industries. I was excited to learn that they had called for a mass lead law. I was particularly interested in larger funding rounds for biomanufacturing, early-stage pharmaceutical and device manufacturers, and for more blue-collar workers and students without college degrees. and increased workforce training and internships to get more people into the life sciences workforce.
Trinh Nguyen, Director of Worker Empowerment for the City of Wu, is leading efforts to ensure effective public-private partnerships that create jobs for people living in the Roxbury and Dorchester areas. These are often six-figure jobs that can bring substantial economic development and wealth creation to the region.
For many years, even though experts told me it wasn’t possible, I’ve been working hard to build advanced urban centers because Massachusetts is a high-cost manufacturing state and therefore can’t compete with low-cost manufacturing states. We have been strong supporters of the manufacturing industry. They didn’t understand advanced manufacturing and the price elasticity of biomanufacturing and building robots and clean technology products.
I also spoke as Secretary of Housing and Economic Development Mike Keneally and Mr. Wu announced the MassWorks award for Nubian Square Athens, a $111 million project to build a 200,000 square foot development in Roxbury. was equally excited. Nubian Square Athens is expected to create or retain approximately 900 jobs and will include contracting opportunities for minority- and women-owned businesses during all phases of construction. My City at Peace and HYM Investment Group are proposing to build his 700,000 square foot Life His Science space on Parcel 3 in Roxbury.
This is all good news considering the impact urban manufacturing has demonstrated in other cities across the country. Richard Taylor, the developer of Nubian Ascends, once said that you can’t create wealth if everyone is running around with his EBT card. That shocked me. According to census data, Grove Hall is one of the poorest neighborhoods in Boston. The business mix includes nonprofit organizations, storefront churches, bodegas, convenience stores, barbershops, hair salons, and quick-service restaurants. These companies do not offer a clear path to the middle class for many managers and employees.
Nubian Square Athens and the new Benjamin Franklin Cummings Institute of Technology (BFCIT) campus under construction adjacent to it are collaborating to create the Nubian Athens Life Sciences Job Training Center, which will house the university’s biotechnology manufacturing training lab. The training center provides a new avenue for economic development in downtown Boston. The vocational training hub also has the potential to anchor an advanced manufacturing ecosystem with a particular focus on the state’s two high-growth sectors: biotechnology and clean technology. The advanced manufacturing program will take advantage of the co-located facilities of BFCIT and Dearborn STEM High School, allowing it to serve students attending other high schools in the area and Roxbury Community College. Currently, Boston is the only region in the state without a fully funded and state-supported advanced manufacturing program.
This will change because manufacturing jobs do not require expensive or extensive post-secondary education. These jobs exist in the heart of Boston and provide a clear path to the middle class for upskilling unemployed and underemployed workers, veterans, union members, and people with employment challenges such as CORI. are doing. The development of these two Nubian Squares and their focus on vocational training could change that.
We need to strengthen the link between white-collar innovation jobs and blue-collar manufacturing jobs. There is no reason to continue exporting jobs to other states and lose jobs, revenue and corresponding taxes. But that’s what we do, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. As pharmaceutical companies increase their research and development investments in our state, we continue to lose corresponding drug manufacturing jobs.
MassBio says record investment flows into Massachusetts are now in high demand for new factories and the associated workforce to make those drugs.
Leveraging Nubian Ascends and BFCIT’s partnership will play a central role in Greater Boston’s workforce development strategy, complementing existing strategies to place workers in culinary, hospitality, and health care jobs. There is a possibility.
The state leads in biotechnology, but not in biomanufacturing. The six largest employer states in the pharmaceutical and pharmaceutical manufacturing sectors are California, New Jersey, North Carolina, Illinois, New York, Pennsylvania, and Indiana. Some argue that Massachusetts’ high energy, labor and real estate costs prevent it from becoming a manufacturing leader. However, California, New York, and New Jersey are not known as states with low manufacturing costs.
Advanced manufacturing industries often use knowledge workers rather than traditional “workers.” People involved in precision manufacturing should be thought of as craftsmen who create high-value-added parts that have high profit margins and are not dependent on price. Manufacturers of these parts are able to absorb Massachusetts’ high manufacturing costs while remaining competitive, profitable, and growing. Furthermore, these jobs cannot be easily transferred overseas.
Biomanufacturing based on advanced manufacturing concepts includes “bioink” 3D bioprinting and biofabrication. The clinical biomanufacturing applications market is segmented into dermal printing, bone and cartilage printing, vascular printing, and other clinical applications. Other uses include printing organs. A 3D printed bladder has been successfully transplanted into a human. A potential positive impact of 3D printed organs is that they can be customized to the recipient. This capability will complement the state’s medical leadership, including the Longwood Medical Region. Young black and brown students, as well as adults in Roxbury and Dorchester, may be learning biomanufacturing skills. Such a training facility is expected to attract students from both the north and south coasts, as well as the west side of the city.
It is estimated that $100 billion in capital investment will be required to install approximately 45 gigawatts of offshore wind power in New England by 2050.
The amount of money projected to be spent on climate change will create significant opportunities in clean technology, and the workers involved in those opportunities may be trained in this new development.
This is a once in a lifetime opportunity and we need to take advantage of it. We need to embrace advanced manufacturing, strengthen relationships between white-collar and blue-collar industry workers, and pave the way to the middle class.
Ed Gaskin is executive director of Greater Grove Hall Main Streets and founder of Sunday Celebrations.
