The Capital Region Biotech Talent Partnership is a collaborative initiative designed to strengthen education-to-career pathways in one of the region’s fastest-growing sectors. Funded through the We Prosper Together Catalyst Fund in partnership with Valley Vision, and led by the Sacramento Employment and Training Agency (SETA), Wexford Connect Labs, the City of Sacramento Office of Innovation and Economic Development, and Capitol Impact, the initiative is building a resilient, equitable biotech talent pipeline to meet the region’s evolving workforce demands. Using the Talent Pipeline Management (TPM) framework, the partnership is:

• Forecasting demand for six critical biotech job families:
  • Biomanufacturing: Manufacturing Operator, Quality Assurance Specialist, GMP Trainers, Manufacturing Sciences and Technology Engineers, Manufacturing Systems Specialists
  • Animal Care: Animal Care Technicians & Technologies
• Backmapping the regional talent supply: We’ve analyzed education and training data across the Capitol Region to identify which academic pathways best align with these job families. This analysis is helping us partner with highly-aligned programs and re-engage those needing curricular or structural alignment to meet projected demand.
• Aligning education and industry: By sharing TPM data with education and training partners, we’re now collaborating to co-design work-based learning (WBL) programs, curriculum updates, and stackable credentials to ensure local learners can access and thrive in biotech careers.

To date, we’ve conducted over a dozen employer and partner meetings—including site visits at Orca Bio, Jackson Labs, and Sheldon High School—to directly gather insight on hiring trends, training gaps, and career pathway barriers. At our June Kickoff Call, we shared early progress from the pilot year – representing 600+ employees and sharing an estimated demand for 100+ biotech jobs by the end of 2025. Our first-year focus has centered heavily on biomanufacturing roles, a critical sub-sector for Sacramento’s economic future, while laying the groundwork to expand into Cell and Gene Therapy, clinical trials, and upstream R&D roles. As we prepare to enter Year 2 of the initiative, we are actively recruiting new employer partners from across diverse biotech and life sciences sub-sectors to join our TPM Cohort #2 launching in June 2025. This next phase will culminate in our annual regional TPM data collection effort beginning in Fall 2025 and represents a critical opportunity to shape inclusive growth in the region’s biotech economy. If your institution, company, or training provider is interested in partnering to bring students and jobseekers closer to meaningful, high-quality biotech careers, please reach out to the Capitol Impact team to get involved and stay connected to this growing regional effort.